Chosen Four
by Yami Yami Yugi
Summary: Changed Title! Yugi, Jounouchi, Malik, and Ryou have been separated by slavery. With strange powers they've had since they were young, problems face Egypt when they meet again in the palace. But how will their masters take it once they get attached? Ch.15
1. Chapter One

Yami Yami Yugi: Alright! Another new story! And here helping me are Yugi…

Yugi: Hi!

YYY: And a new arrival, Jounouchi!

Jou: Yo!

YYY: So let's get started then.

Yugi: Can I do the disclaimer?

YYY: Of course mini Hikari!

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Disclaimer: Yami Yami Yugi does not own Yu-Gi-Oh, but she's doing her best to gain custody. (Between you and me, it's not working!)

YYY: Quiet Yugi!

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Warning: This is ratted R for a reason. There are lots of things that are not suitable for young children. And if my mother caught me writing this I could be grounded for a month! So please stay away if the things I implied here could offend you.

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Chapter One

Yugi was sitting alone in a corner in the room where the Master kept his slaves. It was a stone room with no lights or windows, just a door that could only be opened from the outside. There were only two other slaves in the room with him, but there were usually three.

"No, please!" A scream was heard from the next room. Yugi squeezed his eyes closed and put his hands over his ears to try and block it out. That was the third. His best and only friend Jounouchi. There was a loud whimper followed by another scream. Yugi whimpered and hugged his knees to his chest as one small tear rolled down his cheek. Yugi felt horrible. It was his fault Jounouchi was in there after all.

~* Flashback *~

Yugi and Jounouchi stood silently in front of their new master. They, along with many other children, had been taken from their village to be sold as slaves. As for the rest of their families, they were dead. The master circled his new slaves, examining them. Both were dressed in short white pants and matching short-sleeved shirts.

"My, you are such pretty things," he said, his eyes moving up and down the boys. Especially you," he said touching one of Jounouchi's golden locks. The young boy pushed away in self-defense, but this only earned him a slap that sent him to the ground. He let out a small cry when he was given a hard kick to the side.

"I'll deal with you later," the master spat. "But right now," he said turning to the other boy. "I want you to come with me." He grabbed Yugi by his arm and pulled him roughly to another room. Yugi wasn't very strong and couldn't put up very much of a fight against the much bigger man.

"No! Leave him alone! Please!" The master turned around to see Jounouchi standing up once again with a look of complete horror on his face. "Please!" he said again. "I'll do anything, just don't hurt Yugi!"

The master smirked and threw Yugi to the ground. He approached the fearful slave and struck him, once again sending him to the ground. "I'll tell you what, if you come with me I promise not to touch your little friend," he sneered looking down at the body on the floor. The boy remained silent. "Very well then. Come here you." He grabbed Yugi again and was about to enter the other room when…

"Wait!" Yugi and the master turned to see Jounouchi once again on his feet. The boy paused for a moment before looking down at the floor in defeat. "Alright."

The master grinned and threw Yugi into a dark room and closed the door. The next things Yugi heard were Jounouchi's begs and screams from the other room.

~* End Flashback *~

It had been four years since then. Yugi was now twelve and Jounouchi was fourteen. True to his word the Master had not touched Yugi, and every night Jounouchi was forced to serve him in bed. The master had gotten two new slaves since then, but he hardly touched them at all. No, his favorite toy was Jounouchi.

The young boy looked up when the door opened. A figure was thrown in and the door slammed shut. Yugi rushed up to the fallen figure. 

"Are you alright Jounouchi?" he asked quietly to not disturb the other two sleeping slaves, or more importantly his master. 

"Yeah," Jounouchi said quietly. "I will be anyway. Ugh!" He clutched his stomach and winced with pain.

"Jounouchi!" Yugi cried softly trying to help his friend out.

"Man, it's times like this when I really start to miss Ryou," he said with a weak smile.

"Oh Jounouchi." Yugi gave his friend a small hug being careful not to hurt him. "You can't keep doing this. I'm not worth it."

The older boy frowned and tilted his friend's chin up so they made eye contact. "Don't say that Yugi, of coarse you are. You're all I have left now, and are worth everything. There is no way I can let that monster hurt you. I can take this Yugi, really."

Yugi sniffed and buried his head in his friend's chest, crying silently for him. Jounouchi wrapped his arms around Yugi and leaned back against the wall. He ran his hands through Yugi's hair trying to comfort the small boy. Yugi calmed down eventually and soon fell asleep in Jounouchi's arms. The older boy sighed, sleep soon taking over him as well. 


	2. Chapter Two

Yami Yami Yugi: Back by popular demand, here is chapter two of my story!

Yugi: And yes, we get our first look at Yami and Seto now.

Jounouchi: Is that really a good thing? I mean, I could go without seeing Seto for a few more chapters.

YYY: Well then you're in luck because we only see him for about a second.

Jou: *with wide eyes* Really?

YYY: No. I was just trying to make you feel better.

Jou: *pouts* 

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Disclaimer and Warning: Same as last chapter. If you want to see it, click the little blue button going that way. ß 

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Chapter two

Pharaoh Yami looked out the balcony of his palace. The stars were shining brightly in the sky above him, but he was very distracted from their beauty. He normally found the stars very captivating, but not tonight. Tonight Yami was thinking about what tomorrow would bring, for tomorrow was the new moon, and it brought with it new slaves.

The young pharaoh sighed. He always got excited the night before the slaves arrived, but he was always disappointed in the end. 

He heard a knock on the door of his room. "What?" he asked annoyed. He was certain that he had asked not to be disturbed only a few minutes ago.

The door opened and a figure stepped in. He walked over to the pharaoh and stood a few feet behind him.

"What do you want Seto?" Yami asked not turning around.

Seto smirked. "Well, someone's in a good mood tonight."

Yami sighed and turned around. "I guess I just don't want to get my hopes to high about tomorrow."

"Oh," he said raising an eyebrow. "And why not? You're normally all jumpy and excited the night before we get the new slaves."

Yami sighed and leaned on the railing of the balcony, Seto doing the same on his side. "It's the same every moon. I get all excited, the slaves arrive, none of them catch my eye, and I pick one at random. None of them have ever been the right one for me. And they probably never will be."

Seto looked at the pharaoh with sad eyes. He had known him for a very long time and knew how much it meant to him to have the right slave. He put a hand on his friend's shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure that tomorrow you'll find the one you're looking for."

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~* A few days earlier *~

Yugi was standing at his master's stand just outside his house. It was the only use the master had for him. So he had to try to get people to but the things on the stand while the master was out.

He had just finished with a customer when a man came up to him. He was wearing very official looking robes and had a large sack hanging from his shoulder.

"Is your master home?" he asked.

Yugi looked down knowing he was not to look him in the face. "He is not." He replied quietly.

"Give this to him." Yugi nodded and took the scroll. The man then moved on to the next stand to do the same thing.

Later that same day when the master returned Yugi held out the scroll. "This came for you." The master took it and told him to leave. Yugi went inside and entered the slave's room.

The master opened the scroll and read:

__

An Order from the Pharaoh

Each slave owner is to select one slave from the ages of twelve to eighteen to be taken to the palace. If a slave is not owned a fee of five gold coins is to be paid. They will be collected tomorrow at sunset.

He growled and threw it aside. Now he had to give up one of his slaves to the Pharaoh. But which one? "That runt Yugi I guess. I don't need him anyway." He walked over to the slave room and opened the door. Inside he saw the four slaves looking up at him. "You, Yugi," he pointed to the boy. "You are being taken to the palace tomorrow at sunset." 

"W-what?"

"I said you are being taken to the palace. The Pharaoh's picking slaves again and I need to send one of you, so you're going." 

"But you can't do that!"

The master glared at Jounouchi and picked him up by the shirt so he was at eye level. "I am your master and I will do as I like with you." He dropped him on the ground and gave him a hard kick before leaving the room.

Jounouchi got up and growled. "Bastard." He looked over at Yugi who was on the floor with a look of shock on his face. Jounouchi sat down next to him and put his arms around his friend. "I'm sorry Yugi. I guess I couldn't protect you from this."

"It's not your fault Jounouchi. You couldn't stop this from happening." He wrapped his arms around the older boy. [1]

"But Yugi, don't you get it? You're being taken to the palace."

"Yeah, I almost feel bad for you."

Jounouchi glared. "Stay out of this Draconis." [2]

The other slave smirked. He was Jounouchi's age and had white blonde hair and gray eyes. It was obvious they didn't like each other by the way they spoke. 

"What, it's true. I heard that once a slave is taken to the palace, that's it. If you aren't chosen by the Pharaoh, you're either given to someone else or killed."

"It's true," said the other slave. Her name was Anaku. She has long black hair and dark brown eyes. "But I'd prefer to be killed than be picked by the Pharaoh. I heard the likes to torture his slave just for the fun of it. There's also this rumor that he once took a slave so violently that they actually bled to death."

"Shut up Anaku! Don't listen to them Yugi. It's not true." But even as he said those words he wasn't so sure of himself.

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YYY: That's it. Sorry that took so long. I'm one of those really annoying authors that take too long to update. But don't worry. The chapters will come as I think of them. Review! 

[1] You know, one of those best friend/brotherly kinds of hugs. Nothing more!

[2] He is totally based on Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter.


	3. Chapter Three

Yami Yami Yugi: Hey!

Yugi: Hiya!

Jounouchi: Yo!

YYY: Yep another chapter finally here. 

Yugi: Yeah, she took way to long to get this one out..

Jou: That's because you haven't stopped giving her more and more ideas for it.

Yugi: Hey, so I've got an overactive imagination. Is it my fault I came up with the best idea halfway through and she had to start over?

YYY & Jou: Yes!

YYY: And I have one little note that I should have mentioned earlier. This is a Yami/Yugi Jounouchi/Seto fic. Now lets start this already before we get anymore new ideas!

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Disclaimer and Warning: Please see chapter one.

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Chapter three

The door opened, flooding the small room with light. Two men walked in, one carrying a whip. Inside they met the frightened eyes of Yugi who was in Jounouchi's protective embrace. Jounouchi glared at the men that came in and wrapped his arms tighter around his friend. 

"That's the one," the master said pointing at the smaller of the two. "Yugi, come here," he commanded. Yugi didn't move. "I said come here!"

"I won't let you take him!" Jounouchi shouted. "You can't!"

The master frowned. He approached the two slaves, cracking the whip dangerously. The two looked fearful but still, they didn't move.

"You do not have a say in this Jounouchi," he said striking Jounouchi with the whip. Jounouchi hissed in pain as blood came down his bare back. "I am your master and I can do what I want with you." The whip cracked three more times before Jounouchi fell to one knee, still not letting Yugi out of his grasp.

The master nodded to the man at the door who came forward. He grabbed Yugi and roughly pulled him away from Jounouchi. 

"No! Let go! Leave me alone!" Yugi kicked and screamed, but only earned himself a hard slap. 

"No, Yugi!"

"Jounouchi!"

Jounouchi tried to get up and help Yugi, but another lash from the whip brought him back to his knees. "No you won't! I still have to teach you a lesson for disobeying me." The last Yugi saw before he was pushed out was Jounouchi being beaten.

Yugi was pushed outside were he was put in a small group of other slaves who were being carefully watched by some guards. They continued traveling from shop to shop to pick up slaves. By the time they were finished it was very dark and Yugi was tired from walking all day, as were the rest of the slaves. 

They stopped for the night at a camp just outside of town. They were going to meet with the group of slave traders the next day, and then it would be another day before they arrived at the palace. They were each given bread and water that night for their rations, but Yugi wasn't hungry.

His mind kept drifting to Jounouchi and what was happening to him. He knew his friend was going to be punished badly, because of him. And he also thought, not for the first time, what his other friends were doing. What had happened to Marik and Ryou. He hadn't seen them since he was sold to his master. He and Jounouchi had always wondered how they were doing, what happened to them, if they were even alive…

"Excuse me," came a soft voice beside him. "If you're not going to eat that, may we have it?" Yugi looked up to see a white haired boy, slightly older that him standing there.

His eyes widened. "R-Ryou?" he said quietly. It couldn't be.

"Yugi! Is it really you?" Yugi nodded and pulled his friend into a brotherly hug. 

"I don't believe it!" Yugi said.

"Neither can I! Hold on one second." He left and returned a moment later with another person.

"Marik! You're here too."

"Yugi. This is amazing." After a quick reunion the three of them sat on the ground together.

"How did you both get here?" Yugi asked.

"Well," Ryou started, "We were both sold to the same master and for some reason he had to give two slaves instead of one."

"Yeah," Marik continued. "I think it was something about not donating a slave last time they choose that city to get slaves from. I don't know for sure though."

"But anyway, he choose both of us and here we are."

"That's great. If only Jounouchi was here…"

"What happened to him?"

"Well, we were also sold to the same master and…" Yugi trailed off. He wasn't sure how he could say this.

"Is he alright?"

"I'm not sure. That last time I saw him he was being beaten.

****

Yugi's hole body hurt. It hurt from the beatings, walking all day, and from standing for almost three hours. He and the rest of the slaves stood in the throne room, in neat little lines, and their heads bowed. They had been like this since they arrived at the palace, waiting. They were waiting for the Pharaoh. He was late because he was 'busy' with something. Something Jounouchi once said to him when they were younger came back to him at that thought. _'These kinds of guys are never busy. They just like to keep you waiting to make you think they're doing something important.'_ Yugi grinned at the memory.

A few minutes later the Pharaoh walked in and the whole room bowed down on their knees. The Pharaoh sat down on his throne and glanced to his side where the high priest, Seto, stood. He nodded and Seto instructed all the slaves to stand. Yami got up from his throne and walked to the slaves to get a better look at them. 

He walked up and down the rows, the slaves tensing when he passed them. He stopped at a few of them but none really caught his eye. He sighed and was about to take his seat again when he caught glimpse of a small figure in the crowd. He approached the boy to get a better look. 

It was almost unreal at how much he looked like him. They both had the same spiky black hair with a red outline and golden bangs. The slave however lacked the few yellow streaks going through his hair that Yami had. He tilted the boy's chin up to see his face and gasped. Staring back at him where large and frightened violet orbs that he almost drowned in. They were filled with such innocence and beauty that it seemed almost impossible. But he also seemed young, very young. Perhaps no older than eight.

"What is the meaning of this?" he questioned. "I made it clear that no slave here should be under twelve years." 

One of the guards rushed over and took a look at Yugi. "How old are you?" he demanded. Yugi gulped and said something quietly. "Speak up boy!"

"Twelve years."

The Pharaoh raised an eyebrow. So he was old enough. Just barely, but still old enough. He turned and returned to his seat and thought for a moment. When he looked into the eyes of that slave he felt some thing he had never felt before. They were so innocent and beautiful. All of the boy was. And he wanted to get to know him better

Yami whispered something to a nearby guard who bowed and walked into the crowd. He returned a moment later dragging Yugi behind him. Yugi was too frightened to fight back. The Pharaoh couldn't have possibly chosen him! But he had. Yugi was pushed at the Pharaohs feet. Tears started forming in his eyes. He was going to be the Pharaoh's slave. The Pharaoh who supposedly tortured and killed his slaves for fun. 

Yami nodded to Seto who stood up. "The Pharaoh has chosen his slave! The rest of you will be taken to see your duties."

Yami stood up and took Yugi out of the hall. He led him down a series of hallways and up many flights of stairs before stopping at a door at the end of one of the halls. It was a golden door with a carving of the Millennium Puzzle. He placed his hand on the carving which glowed red and gave him entrance. He took Yugi into the room before shutting the door behind him.

Yugi stared in awe at the room. It was beautiful. The floor was made from marble that he could practically see his face in. There were several fine paintings scattered on the walls. Red and gold drapes hung from the windows. There were dressers and desks that were made of finely carved wood and had some gold and ruby decorations. There was a large balcony that had a better view of Egypt than anywhere else. Many different rare plants and flowers were arranged throughout the room in neat patterns. In one corner of the room was a small bathing area. And of coarse there was the bed. It was magnificent with silk sheets and pillows and ruby red curtains that surrounded it.

Yugi would have been much more amazed had he not been so scared. What was going to happen to him. He had never been taken or even really harmed by his old master because of that deal he made with Jounouchi, but he could hear what went on in that room. And the words Draconis and Anaku said to him kept coming back. _'I heard the likes to torture his slaves for fun.' 'He once took a slave so hard they bled to death.'_ Was that going to happen to him?

"Ahem." Yugi jumped when the Pharaoh coughed. He forgot the was in here.

Yami sat down on one of the couches and had Yugi take a seat beside him. The small slave approached slowly and sat down, put his hands on his lap, and stared at his knees. Yami put his own had over the Yugi's. Yugi flinched but remained where he was. 

"What is your name little one?" Yami asked softly but firmly.

"Y-Yugi, master." He had such an angelic voice and features to match he noticed. His pale soft skin and beautiful face entranced him. But his eyes were covered by his bangs. But he was knocked out of his thoughts when he felt something on his hand. He looked down to find it was a tear. The boy was crying.

Yami seemed to melt at the sight. "What is the matter, Yugi?" he demanded, his voice still soft.

"Nothing m-master." 

"Do not lie to me." Yugi stiffened beside him.

"I-I suppose I'm f-frightened."

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Of what exactly? Me?" Yugi gave a small nod. "Hmm."

Yugi gasped. Did do say something wrong? Was he going to be hit? "I-I'm sorry! J-just f-forget what I said. I…"

Yami placed a finger over his mouth to quiet him down. Yugi stopped talking, but he still looked terribly frightened. He frowned. He knew that he was the master of this slave now and could do as he pleased with him, but still, he didn't want the boy to fear him. He wasn't sure why but he wanted the slave to be happy with him. It didn't make sense, but he did. He had never felt this was toward a slave before.

Yami tilted Yugi's chin up so their eyes met. "You have no reason to fear me little one. I will not hurt you."

Now Yugi was confused. Wasn't this the Pharaoh who was supposed to be downright cruel to slaves? The one that tortured and killed for fun? The one that separated him from Jounouchi in the first place? Then why was he being so nice to him?

But he seemed sincere. Maybe he could trust him. He whispered an almost inaudible "okay" to the Pharaoh who smiled. Then out of nowhere Yugi yawned. He gasped and blushed, turning away.

Yami only smiled. "You must be tired. It's very late after all." He walked over to his bed and sat down on the edge. "Would you like sleep here with me or would you prefer your own bed?" 

Yugi gasped and looked away again. Yami, sensing his discomfort, walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I am inviting you to sleep Yugi. Nothing more."

Yugi paused for a moment before slowly making his way to the bed. Yami smiled and joined him. He blew out the candles and crawled under the sheets next to the slave.

Yugi stiffened as he felt a strong arm wrap itself around him, but soon relaxed. He rested his head on the Pharaoh's chest and was soon asleep. Yami sighed and gave the slave a small kiss on his forehead before falling asleep himself.

****

Jounouchi was once again thrown onto the cold stone floor of the slave room after another night of "service." But for the last two nights it had been worse than ever. With Yugi no longer there he was putting up a much bigger fight. He had no reason to be obedient now unless disobeying could result in death.

He leaned his back against the wall and winced. He had been beaten on a regular basis since the first day, but now they were becoming worse and worse. But he knew he had to keep fighting, for Yugi. 

__

Yugi. Not for the first time was he worrying about his little friend. He wasn't there to protect him anymore, and had no way to know if he was alright or even alive. _No Jounouchi, don't think that! He's fine, I know he is! He has to be!_ A tear slid down his face. "Yugi. Please be okay." Another tear fell down his face. Then another. He brought his knees to his chest and cried silently. _Please. Please just let him be alright._ "Please."

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YYY: Wow! Long chapter! Hope it makes up for being late! And thank you to all my reviewers! And I have a task for all of you. What do you think I should do about Ryou and Marik. Should I have them together or with their Yami's or should I just not pair them at all? Be sure to review and let me know!


	4. Chapter Four

Yami Yami Yugi: Guess who's back!

Jou: Um… you?

YYY: Good job! Here, have a cookie!

Jou: Yay!

Yugi: Hey! I want one too!

YYY: Don't worry. I didn't forget you. gives him cookie

Yugi: happy

YYY: Now one to business. I have a very good and original explanation on why I was so late.

Jou: Original!? It's the same excuse every author on this site uses!

YYY: ignoring him I've been swamped with school work, but that only delayed me a little. Besides, it's been getting easier. I've also been fixing the last few chapters a bit. Nothing so big that you have to read it over, but a few details changed. But I assure you I'll never take this long again.

Jou: snort

YYY: still ignoring him On a different note, the votes are in and it's unanimous. Ryou/Bakura Malik/Ishtar are our new pairings. Don't worry, I have a pretty good idea for this. So let's go!

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Disclaimer and Warning: You know it by know.

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Chapter Four

Sunlight poured into the room of the Pharaoh and peaked through the curtains of the bed. Yugi frowned and turned over, not wanting to get up. He was so warm and comfortable.

'Wait'. He thought. 'Warm and comfortable? That can't be right at all.' Yugi slowly opened his eyes and took a quick look around. For a minute he was shocked to see he was in bed with the Pharaoh, but soon remembered what happened last night. 'I just hope I can trust him, and he's not just playing some game with me.' 

Just then the figure beside him started to stir. He opened is eyes and met with Yugi's. Yami smiled and brought his slave closer to him and gave him a little squeeze. "Good morning Yugi."

"G-good morning, master," Yugi said softly. He was still a little nervous about being his slave. What if he was just playing with him?

Yami slowly sat up and stretched. He climbed out of bed and made his way towards a dresser, Yugi following slowly behind, not sure if he was supposed to. Yami picked out a white short-sleeved shirt with gold woven into it and red linings along with a matching kilt and a red sash to go around his waist. "Here," he said to Yugi. "Put this on and I will be right back."

He handed the clothes to him and went to a separate part of the room. When he returned he was dressed in his normal Pharaoh's garments and Yugi had changed as well. He also carried with him a small box which he set down on the dresser. Inside were two golden armbands and a golden collar. They all had a few red rubies arranged on them as well. Yami took them out of the box and carefully placed them around Yugi's neck and wrists.

"Are they to tight?" he asked. Yugi shook his head. He thought they were rather nice and very comfortable.

"Good. These, like the clothes, mark you as my slave so nobody can do anything to you without my permission. But they are also magic. If someone does try to hurt you the rubies will light up and protect you. So it's very important that you keep these on at all times."

"Okay master." _'Wow. That's pretty cool.'_

Yami gave a small smile and shook his head. "Please Yugi, I don't want you to call me that anymore. Just use Yami from now on, even when we're with other people. Can you do that for me?"

"Alright, Yami," he said sweetly.

Yami couldn't help but grin. He had fallen for this little slave so quickly. He couldn't help himself. He loved everything about him, his voice, his smile, his eyes,… And he was all his. Nobody else could have the little one. He was all his. _All mine._ Without thinking he bent down and gave him a small kiss on the lips.

The younger boy gasped and Yami, sensing his discomfort, slowly pulled away. "What was… why did you…" Yugi was too shocked to say anything. He had never been kissed like _that_ before.

"Never been kissed?" Yami questioned. Yugi shook his head. "Did you like it?"

"Um…well…" Yugi wasn't quite sure how to answer. Was he supposed to like it?

"Just answer me truthfully," Yami said.

He nodded. "Yeah, I did."

He smiled. "Good, because you'll be getting a lot more of it. Now let's get some breakfast and I can show you the palace."

They left his room and started down the hallway.

"Y-Yami?" Yugi asked.

"Yes," the other asked, not looking at him.

"Do you think…well…um…oh never mind." _'I shouldn't be asking him! I'm his slave for Ra's sake. I can't ask for anything.'_

"What's the matter?"

"It was nothing. I don't even remember anymore."

Yami slowed down slightly to look at Yugi. "Don't lie to me Yugi," he said firmly.

Yugi jumped. "I'm sorry…I-it was stupid…I just…Don't be mad…I-I'm sorry…" _'Oh, I just know I'm going to be punished for this."_

Yami stopped and smiled at Yugi and said, "It's alright Yugi. I'm not mad. You can ask me."

"Well, I-I just wanted to know if, um, maybe later I could visit my friends? But it's stupid. You don't have to…"

Yami cut him off. "Are they here in the palace?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Then I don't see why not."

"Really?" He nodded. "Thank You!"

They continued down the corridor, but Yami noticed that something else seemed to be bothering the boy. He sighed. The boy was keeping something else he wanted from him. "What's wrong, Yugi?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Yugi…"

The younger boy gulped. "Well, I'm worried about my other friend. I'm afraid something might be wrong."

"Well, where is he?"

"He's still back with my old master. But there isn't anything you can really do about that. I mean, he isn't even in this city."

"You know, I could sent someone to get your friend."

"Really? Oh thank you Yami! Thank you so much!" He hugged the Pharaoh who returned it with a smile before opening the doors to the dining hall.

"Oh, Seto…" he called sweetly.

* * *

The High Priest Seto growled silently as he approached the shop of Yugi's old master. It had taken him all morning to get there and would take him the rest of the day to get back to the Palace. [1] Yami was lucky he was his best friend or he would have never agreed to do this, Pharaoh or no Pharaoh. He sighed and looked over the note once more.

_Once you arrive you are looking for a slave by the name of Jounouchi. He will have blonde hair, brown eyes, pale skin, and most likely to have a bad attitude. Be careful as he will put up a fight. Be sure to bring him back with you. Have fun. _

He growled at the last comment and placed the note back in his robe and approached the shop. "Where is your master?" he asked the little slave girl at the counter.

She bowed to him and replied, "He is inside. Shall I get him?"

"Yes." He answered as the girl went inside.

"Master," he heard from outside.

"What?" came the reply before the crack of a whip was heard and a second voice let out a small shout. Seto didn't think anything of it. It was an every day thing for a slave to be punished.

"The High Priest is outside."

"The High Priest? Are you sure?" The girl poked her head outside and took a look at Seto. He opened his robe just enough for her to see the Millennium Rod strapped to his waist.

"Yes, I'm sure." There was a soft rustling, a yell, and the sound of a door slamming in the back before a man stepped out.

"High Priest Seto," he said with a bow. "How can I be of service to you?"

"I understand you posses a slave by the name Jounouchi. I would like to see him."

"Of coarse." He turned to the girl who stood behind him. "Anaku, bring Jounouchi out here."

"Yes master." She went inside and the sound of a door opening could be heard followed by what sounded like a big struggle. Seto raised an eyebrow when he heard a crash and three different shouts, but said nothing. The next thing he knew, two different pairs of hands shoved a young boy out the curtain and sent him tumbling to the ground. He quickly picked himself up with some trouble and brushed himself off muttering something under his breath. Judging from his condition he was the on who was being beaten earlier.

Seto looked at the slave surprised. Yami had never mentioned how pretty the boy was. He had very pale skin, but not a sickly kind of pale A few strands of his messy blond hair fell onto his face and over his eyes. His eyes that were the color of honey and had the spark of disobedience you wouldn't normally find in a slave. He liked him.

"Are you the slave that goes by the name of Jounouchi?" he questioned.

The boy glared. "Yeah, what's it to you?" His voice was very strained, as if it was taking a lot of energy just to stand up.

His master backhanded him. He hissed in pain as he was sent tumbling to the ground. "Show respect to the High Priest boy!"

Jounouchi looked up at the person that he spoke to. This was the High Priest? Okay, maybe not the right person to talk back to. Boy was he going to be in trouble. But being stupid and not to mention stubborn person he was, Jounouchi just continued to glare at the High Priest. _'Boy am I gonna get it for this,' _he thought to himself.

Seto examined the boy more closely. He fit the description perfectly, blonde hair, brown eyes, disobedient,… He was the one he was looking for.

"How much is it to purchase him?"

Jounouchi looked up from his spot on the ground confused. _Purchase?_

"I'm sorry High Priest Seto, but unfortunately this particular slave is not for sale. He is… um… very useful to me. Perhaps one of my other slaves would interest you?"

Seto put on a fake smile. "Oh no, that's quite alright. He is really not that big of an interest to me. It would be a waist of my time to try to get you to sell him to me. Really, you need not give him up."

He man nodded and smiled. "I'm glad you see it my way."

"Of coarse," he said. His eyes narrowed. "I can always just tell the Pharaoh that you refused to give him up and have him come over here himself. It's his orders after all."

Jounouchi, who had been silently trying to stay on his feet smirked. As much of an asshole his guy may be, he had to admit, it was a very pretty sight to see someone talk back to his master.

He looked over the High Priest. A very pretty sight. His neat, brown hair, his tan skin, and his deep blue eyes. Yes, he was a very pretty sight indeed.

_'Wait a minute!'_ he thought. _'What was I thinking? This is the High Priest. He's, like, best friends with the creep that took Yugi away. And a guy no less. I can't be attracted to him! But still…'_ He shook his head and looked back at the conversation.

The master gulped and tugged at his shirt. "Well since you put it that way, I'm sure I can part with this one. Is fifteen gold coins alright?"

"It's fine," he said placing some gold on the table. He grabbed Jounouchi by the wrist and roughly pulled him away.

"Hey!" Jounouchi shouted trying to pry his hand loose. "I can walk on my own you know."

"Hn," was the only response he got as Seto walked faster.

Jounouchi winced trying to keep up. The truth of it was, running hurt. He was stumbling a lot from it. Seto, however took no notice of it. He just continued on his merry way to the palace, practically dragging the poor slave behind him.

"Hey! Do you think you could slow down up there?" Jou asked after a while. The was getting pretty tired and was still hurting pretty bad. His injuries were pretty bad after all.

"No," he responded flatly.

"Well why the hell not?! It's not like it's gonna kill you."

"There would be not point in me slowing down because the is no reason." He smirked. "What possible reason do I have to slow down? You?"

"Keep talking," he muttered under his breath, "And I'll have my Flame Swordsman to slice you in half."

Seto stopped so abruptly that Jounouchi slammed into him and fell to the ground.

"You have a deck?" he asked, looking rather shocked.

"Yeah," he responded getting up then falling again before getting up properly. "So what's the big deal. All my friends have them."

"Slaves aren't allowed to keep decks." He resumed walking, although slower this time.

"Well duh! I had one before I became a slave."

"Oh, so you don't have one anymore."

"Of coarse I have one!" Jounouchi smiled. He was enjoying this.

"But how can you if you're a slave?"

"Well, my master didn't know about it. I kept it in my secret hiding place."

"So you own a deck but you don't have it with you."

"Of coarse I have it with me. It's just in my hiding place."

"Then where the hell is it!" Seto shouted. He was not very fond of this game and was losing his patience.

"Here." Jounouchi said holding out a deck in his hand.

Seto stared wide eyed at the cards. So it was true, he did have a deck. He reached his hand out to take the deck for a closer look when Jounouchi snatched his hand away. He growled and grabbed Seto by the collar bringing him down to eye level. "Don't touch my deck," he growled.

The other boy smirked. "Nice grip. Let me show you mine." He grabbed the boy's wrist and twisted it painfully. He cried out and let go and he was thrown, rather painfully, to the ground.

Jounouchi groaned as he got back up. This wouldn't have happened if he could still…hey! That was it.

"Hey!"

"What now?" Seto asked. He was getting really tired of this.

"Don't you think you should take this thing off of me?" He lifted his pants leg a little to show a bronze ring around his ankle.

Seto raised an eyebrow. "What is it."

_'Damn! Now what? I can't tell him that it…wait, I know!'_ "It marks me as his slave," he said motioning backwards. "And since he's not my master anymore, I really don't think I should be wearing it anymore, do you?"

Seto turned around. "Take it off yourself." He started walking, but Jounouchi stopped him.

"Don't you think I would have by now if I could?" Seto turned around, walked over to Jounouchi, and hit him. Hard. He then grabbed his wrist, and continued towards the palace. This boy was really testing his patience.

Jounouchi was also in a pretty foul mood. He could just feel all his strength that was locked up inside, and was just dying to use some of it on Seto. But he knew he couldn't. Not since he got the damn thing on his ankle.

Flashback

It had been about one week since Jounouchi and Yugi had been sold as slaves. Once again, Jounouchi was in his master's room desperately trying to keep away from him. For a ten-year-old, he was very strong and was doing pretty well against the much bigger man. But like on every other night, he was becoming tired and couldn't run forever.

"Gotcha!" the master cried as he caught the slave and pinned him to the wall. Still, Jounouchi struggled.

"Let go of me!" he shouted trying to break free. The master's fist connected with his stomach. He gave a yelp of pain before he crumpled to the ground.

"You need to be taught another lesson don't you, you little brat?" He brought out the whip and cracked the whip dangerously in the air. Jounouchi growled as he tried to stand up, but the whip sent him back down. It came down three more times on his back, each time drawing more blood.

Jounouchi bit his lip. He refused to cry out. He had to be strong.

"Tsk, Tsk," the master waved a finger at the boy. "Perhaps I should bring in your little friend Yugi. He should will be a little more obedient." He stepped out of the room and returned with a struggling Yugi. Jounouchi's eyes widened with horror.

The master threw him on to the bed and climbed on top of him.

"Yugi…" Jounouchi said weakly as he tried to get up, but it was no use. He was too weak. He collapsed again and tried to look up. Yugi had stopped trying to get away and was crying as the master began to remove his clothes. His near hysterical sobs reached Jounouchi who suddenly felt a lot of power coming back to him. Inside his heart burned with rage at the master for what he was going to do.

"No…NO!" His eyes glowed blue and the next thing he knew, the master was in a heap on the other side of the room dripping wet.

Jounouchi blinked a few times before he realized what had happened. _'Damn'_ He thought he had better control than that, but… He looked over at Yugi who was still in hysterics on the bed. This might have been the perfect time to unleash them.

He ran over to his friend and tried to calm him down. "Shh, it's alright Yugi. He's not going to hurt you. I promise." He hugged his friend close and rocked him back and forth. [2]

"You-you…" Jounouchi held Yugi closer as he turned to the master who was staring wide eyed at him. "You're a…"

End Flashback

After that night the master made him wear that band around his ankle to keep his powers from activating. He also put one on Yugi a few days later when Yugi accidentally activated his.

He was knocked out of his memories when he bumped into the figure in front of him, once again sending him to the ground. Seto turned around and glared down at the figure before turning and walking through the now open palace gates. Jounouchi picked himself up and followed him into the palace.

* * *

YYY: I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!!!!!!!! It's been so long since I've updated! I promise the next chapter will be out much sooner! This one took so long and I don't know why! So please review and I'll get the next one out soon. Really!

[1] Last time it took two days to get from this place to the palace, but that was because they had to make a lot of stops and meet the slave traders. Seto is just going there and coming back.

[2] I've said this before, but just to remind you, this is a strict brotherly/ best friend sort of relationship. Nothing more.


	5. Chapter Five

Yami Yami Yugi: Haha! I told you I'd be back soon this time. 

Jounouchi: Yeah, like we were gonna believe that.

Yugi: Jou! Be nice!

YYY: Forget it. He's just like that sometimes. But now we have to get on to business. Yugi?

Yugi: Right. As you may have noticed, Yami Yami has been playing around with titles for a while. Don't worry, she'll have one picked out soon enough.

YYY: Great. Now Jou, do you have anything you would like to say?

Jou: *Smashes himself against the screen* HELP ME! I'm being held here against my will! Get me out! Please! Free me from this horrid place! I'll do anything-

YYY: JOU!! That's not what I meant.

Jou: *blinks* Oh… Right. Thanks for all the reviews! Although Yami Yami was rather surprised that not to many of you caught on to what was strange with Yugi and me.

Yugi: But that's alright! You'll find out soon enough.

YYY: I think that's all… Oh yeah! Thank you to all who reviewed! I don't think I've seen so many reviews appear all at once! Well, here we go again!

****

Disclaimer: Just to remind you, I don't own Yugi or Jounouchi or Ryou or Malik or Yami or Seto or Bakura or Ishtar or… *two hours later* or Espa Roba's youngest brother or Rebecca's teddy or… *the next day* or random man 37 or random man 38 or…

Yugi: We could be here for a while. Let's leave her alone and get on with it.

YYY: or random girl 3 or random girl 4

****

Warning: Scroll up. See the rating. See genre. See previous chapters. See what I mean?

****

Chapter Five

Knock Knock. 

Yami looked in the direction of the door to the throne room. "Who's there?" he demanded.

"Who do you think Pharaoh?"

Yami grinned. Only one person he knew had the nerve to talk to him like that and live to tell about it. "Wait one minute," he shouted. He turned to the boy sitting on a smaller chair beside him. "Yugi, go to my room. I'll be there in a minute." Yugi gave him a confused look but went over to the doorway to Yami's room just the same.

Once the door closed, Yami turned to the one Seto was behind. "Enter!" The door swung open and Seto marched in, dragging a struggling boy behind him. "Is this him?"

"Yes," he said pulling Jounouchi in front of him. The boy immediately bowed. Disrespecting the High Priest was one thing, but the Pharaoh was a whole nother story. He most certainly did not have a death wish!

"Good. Now we'll have to find a place for him…"

"Actually Yami, I wanted to request that he be my slave."

Yami raised an eye brow. "Oh really?"

Seto rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up! So can I have him or not?"

"I suppose so. Just, don't kill him. The reason I had you bring him was for…you know…" he motioned toward his chambers.

"Ah, of coarse!" He smirked. "Well, I'm off. Have fun with your _playmate._"

The Pharaoh glared and the next thing anybody knew, Seto was being attacked by a brown hairball.

"Argh! Get this stupid thing off me!" He yanked the creature off and threw it at Yami who sent the Kuribo back to the Shadow Realm.

"Come Jounouchi," he said pulling the slave up and out of the room.

_'Great'_ Jounouchi thought, _'now I'm stuck with this guy for my master. Does it get any worse?"_ He let Seto lead him while he looked around. 

In all fairness, this place was pretty cool. It was very clean and looked very nice. He was being led down a rather long corridor at the moment. There were a few doors they passed and writings on the walls. He could read a few words of it, but not a lot. As he passed another door, He had to wonder of Yugi could be right behind one of them.

"Big brother!" Jounouchi was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw a little raven haired boy running down the hall towards them. The boy launched himself onto Seto who gave him a quick hug before putting him down. Jounouchi took a closer look at the boy once he was on the ground. He was young, perhaps ten or eleven years. He had long messy black hair and gray eyes. He was wearing short green robes with silver trimmings and a blue sash around his waist. Hanging around his neck was a golden ankh shaped key.

"Hey big brother! Where were you today? I was worried."

Seto gave him a warm smile and ruffled his hair. "Sorry Mokuba. I had to run an errand. And I'm afraid we're going to have to miss out lesson today, too."

The boy, Mokuba?, frowned. "But why? I haven't seen you all day!" Seto motioned behind him toward Jounouchi. "Ohh!" he said, understanding. "Well in that case, don't let me keep you. Just make sure to promise not to skip out on me tomorrow."

"Okay, I promise."

"Alright. See you later big brother!" With a wave he disappeared down the hall.

Seto's face hardened again as he continued to lead Jounouchi down the hall. After a few moments they reached the door at the end. It was silver with a carving of the Millennium Rod on it. He placed his hand on it and it glowed blue before opening. 

Now it didn't take a genius to figure out this was the high priest's room. It was the second best room in the palace next to the Pharaoh's. The only difference was that it was slightly smaller and everything was blue and silver instead of red and gold.

Just before entering the room Jounouchi suddenly became very nervous. _'Shit! I'm his slave and I'm in his room. That can only mean one thing…'_ He was scared. More than nervous but less than terrified. He was just scared. So naturally he jumped when he heard the sound of Seto closing the door. And locking it. Seto turned around and approached his new slave. He slowly backed away as Seto continued to advance until he hit a wall. Great, now he was trapped in a corner. Jounouchi tried to look tough, but it was kind of hard considering he had a big, powerful man towering over him. _'Damn.'_

"Come," he ordered turning and walking to the other side of the room. He stopped at the bath. "I want you to undress and get in. I have to attend to something but I will return in a few moments. You are not to leave this room." With that he left through another door in the back.

Jounouchi stood there for a moment before relaxing slightly. He was safe for the moment. He slowly removed the few clothes he had on and stepped into the bath. The water was hot, but it felt good on his cuts and bruises. He closed his eyes and sighed before sitting up. He found a small cloth and used it to clean himself up. When he was done he settled down into the water and started to think.

What was he going to do when the High Priest returned. He knew what was going to happen when he came back. He shuddered at the thought. Normally he would try to fight him off, but this was different. This guy could do more than just beat him if he got angry. And with the band around his ankle he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

But as he thought, he suddenly became aware of how tired he was. He leaned his head against the side of the bath and used his arm as a pillow. Despite all his worrying, he was soon sound asleep.

Meanwhile in the back room, Seto was doing some thinking of his own. He had become very confused ever since he saw Jounouchi. Sure he was just another slave, but he had somehow become rather attached to him. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he felt sympathy towards him when he saw the state he was in at the other man's house. And when he hit him on the road, he felt horrible after that.

But it didn't make any sense. He shouldn't feel like this towards a slave. Finally deciding to blame it on stress, he returned to the other room.

****

Yugi sat alone in Yami's room fiddling with his shirt. Yami had to go to a meeting so he was left by himself. Sighing he leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. He was incredibly bored with nobody to talk to or something to occupy his mind. Even with his old master he could always talk with Jounouchi or even Draconis and Anaku. 

He sighed again and flipped onto his belly. Suddenly, an idea struck him. Using as much power as he could muster, he called his deck to him. With a small pop, it appeared in the air before him. He snatched it up and sat up. Hiding and calling his deck was the most of his powers he could use with the band on his leg. 

He started to flip though the cards, stopping at his favorite monster. Yugi was especially fond of the Dark Magician. It was strange because it was said that the Dark Magician was loyal to only the Pharaoh, and nobody else could control it. But Yugi had also been destined to have one.

~* Flashback *~ (Quite a lot of these, ne?)

Five-year-old Yugi was flipping through his newly made deck that his Grandfather helped him make. It wasn't the best deck in the world, but it wasn't bad either. He was about to go out when he was stopped.

"Yugi," his Grandfather asked, "Where are you going?"

"To Jounouchi's house. I wanted to show him my new deck!" 

"It's getting dark Yugi. You can go tomorrow." 

"But Grandfather, it's only to Jounouchi's house! I'll be fast, I promise! Please, Grandfather?" He gave him eyes that not even the mighty Ra could refuse.

And it worked too. The next thing he knew he was on his merry way to his best friend's house. But on the way he saw a frog hopping about the small stream that flowed out of the oasis.[1] He giggled when it fell off a rock and started to chase it. He ran around before finally losing sight of it. Deciding to look for it again later, he set of to Jounouchi's again. But there was a problem. 

He was lost.

He whimpered and wandered through the dark, hopefully to Jounouchi's house. But after a few minutes, he knew for certain he wouldn't find his way there.

"Grandfather?" he called out, hoping he could hear him. "Can anybody help me?" But nobody came. 

It was very dark and terribly cold. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. He continued to walk to nowhere hoping to find someone who could help him.

"Hello?" Yugi called out again. Still nobody heard him. Finally exhausted, the leaned against a building and slid to the ground. Afraid that nobody was going to find him, he started to cry. Tears streamed down his face as he whispered one last time, "Can someone please help me?"

There was a glow beside him and the next second he was face to face with… someone. He was very tall and dressed in all purple. He had on a big hat and was carrying a long staff.

"Who are you?" the little boy asked.

"I," the stranger responded, "am the Dark Magician."

"But why are you here?"

"You were in need of help, were you not?"

"Yes…"

"Well, I am here to help you." He held out his hand, which Yugi took, and helped him up. 

"But why is an important monster like you helping me?"

"Are you not one of the Chosen Four?"

"Huh?" He was confused.

"Your special powers."

"Oh!" he said, knowing what he was talking about. "Yes, I am."

"Well, because of that I was called to you. Now, what is it that you needed?"

Yugi smiled, glad that he wasn't alone anymore. "I'm lost. I have to find my friend Jounouchi's house."

The Dark Magician nodded and led him down a few roads before stopping at one of the houses. "Is this the one?"

"Yes. Thank you so much Dark Magician!"

"Think not of it. Just call on me whenever you need help." He glowed and disappeared. On the ground where he last stood was a card with his picture on it. Yugi picked it up and smiled before carefully adding it to his deck.

~* End Flashback *~

Yugi returned to laying on his back, wishing he could talk to his monster again. It had been so long since he last summoned him. But this stupid band on his ankle kept getting in the way. Just a stupid piece of metal. But the only person who could remove it was whoever his master was. And you could imagine how many masters would do something so you could unleash some sort of strange power.

The door opened and in stepped an annoyed looking Pharaoh. Mumbling something about "idiotic buffoons who call themselves counsel members may they drown in piles of camel shit," or something like that, he collapsed on a couch. Yugi sat down beside him and tilted his head to the side. 

"Bad day?"

"How could you tell? Yes, I'm afraid I can't stand that stupid counsel. I swear they have no idea what they are talking about."

"Then why don't you just get a new one?"

Yami shook his head. "I couldn't do that. They may be a bunch of old buffoons, but I can't trust anybody else. They're among the few who are truly loyal to the kingdom."

"Sorry, I didn't know."

"Don't be," he said sitting up. "You're too young to understand this sort of thing."

"But aren't you pretty young too?"

"Yes, I'm afraid you have me there. I'm only fifteen, but I've been learning about this stuff since I was very young."

"Oh." Yugi wasn't sure what else to say.

"Well it's late and I'm tired. Let's get some sleep." He stood up and Yugi followed. But the metal band around his ankle got cought on the end of Yami's cape and he tripped, sending them both to the ground.

"I'm sorry! Are you okay? I'm sorry!" Yugi panicked. Yami had been nice to him so far, but was he going to hit him this time?

"It's alright Yugi. I'm fine. But I do want to know what this is." He pionted to the band that now connected Yugi's ankle to his cape.

"Oh, um…" _'Great. What am I supposed to tell him now?'_ "My old master put it on me. It was to…sort of keep me in line, I guess." He hoped he believed it.

"Well, it's only causing trouble here so…" He reached over and snapped it off.

****

YYY:  *still doing disclaimer* …or Yugi's hair gel or Malik's left shoe (But I have his right one) or, finally, The dynamite I used to blow up Kaiba's house.

Kaiba: *off screen* You what!?

YYY: Now that that's done, let's get on with the fic!

Jou:  Yami Yami, the fic's over.

YYY:  It is!?   That's the last time I do a disclaimer!   So let's see where  we stand…

*reads the fic*

YYY: Okay, so it isn't the fastest update in the world, but it was faster than last time!

Jou: Yeah, barely.

YYY: *sticks toung out*

Yugi: You two are so immature!

YYY: Oh, and who still sleeps with that Dark Magician night light?

Yugi: Okay! It's on! *tackles YYY to the ground*

Jou: Wow, he's tougher than he looks. Oh well, see you next time!

YYY and Yugi: *in a dust cloud*

****

[1] He's five.  Five-year-olds get distracted easily.


	6. Chapter Six

Yami Yami Yugi: Alright, I'm back. Happy to see me?

Jou: Do you want an honest answer to that?

YYY: No.

Jou: Then, yes. We did.

Yugi: -__- You two are impossible.

YYY: That's not the point. Anyway, we have a great chapter coming up. I'm sure you're going to love it.

Yugi: Yes, we get our first look at Bakura and Ishtar (however short it may be) and not to mention some more info on these "powers" we know you're dying to know about. Well okay, more like a demonstration. A tiny one.

Jou: But first me and Seto get to have some fun. Would anyone care fore a sour fruit? *hint* *hint*

YYY: But that's enough information no? Why don't we just take a look at it instead.

****

Disclaimer and warning: Refer back to other chapters. After the last one, I may not be doing another disclaimer for a while.

****

Chapter Six

The piece of metal fell to the floor with a small _clank_. Yugi stood there for a moment staring at it before he latched himself to Yami with a hug.

"Thank you, Yami! Thank you! Thank you so much!" 

__

'Woah! What did I just do?' "You're welcome, Yugi."

Yugi practically had tears running down his face with joy. It felt like he had found a part of him he had lost for so long. It took all of his self control to not activate right now. But he stopped himself. He wasn't going to ruin this now! Now way in hell.

"Well then, are you ready for bed?"

"Yes." Yugi crawled into the bed next to Yami, but even long after he had fallen to slumber Yugi still couldn't sleep. He was just too excited. _'Maybe just one little thing. Then it's strait to sleep.'_

He looked around the room before his eyes settled on a small plant on the night stand. Shifting slightly, being careful not to wake Yami up, he extended his finger to it. With a small glow of green from his hand, the flower shot up and blossemed. Satisfied with his work he finally setled down into sleep.

****

Seto stepped into his now dark bedroom. He squinted as his eyes tried to adjust to the darkness. He could vaguely make out the figure of his slave in the bath. He walked over silently to get a better look.

Now with a good view of the boy, his heart missed a beat. Then another. He was… gorgeous. His thin, pale frame unmoving in the water, bathed in the moonlight. A few strands of his damp, blond hair fell onto his face. He was, to say the least, attractive. And Seto wanted him.

Now.

He rushed over and quickly scooped the boy into his arms. The sudden movement woke him up and he looked around confused. Not quite realizing his situation yet he tried to get away.

"What are you… Put me down! Ow!" He fell to the ground. "What the hell!"

Seto looked down at the boy on the floor. He was once again reminded of that disobedient puppy image he got at that shop. And bad puppies had to be punished.

"Come on puppy." He roughly grabbed him and pulled him towards the bed. Jounouchi's mind finally registered what was happening. So he panicked.

"No, no! Let me go!" He struggled to get away.

Seto growled. "Hold still! I order you to stop."

But Jounouchi didn't stop. He continued to kick and screamed, anything to get away. His efforts only increased when he saw how close they were to the bed.

"Stop! Please, don't!" Tears started to form in his eyes. "Please. Just let me go! I can't! Not again."

Finally breaking free, he fell to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. "Just leave me alone. Please. I can't take it anymore. No more pain, please. No more." He stayed were he was and continued to sob. He didn't care anymore. He just wanted it all to stop. After four years, this was enough!

Seto hesitated for a moment looking down at the naked boy. He wasn't going to hurt the pretty slave, but he needed to cooperate. He picked him up off the floor, gently this time, and slowly set him on the bed. Still he struggled.

"Don't," he said weakly. "Please."

Seto got on the bed himself and straddled him to keep him from moving. "Shh." he said soothingly, wiping away a tear. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Liar! Of coarse you're going to hurt me! It always hurts." He had stopped all efforts to get away as tears just flowed freely down his face. Again. He was going to have to do it again.

Seto shook his head and brushed a strand of hair out of Jounouchi's face. "I promise, I won't do anything to harm you. I will not hurt you."

Jounouchi shut his eyes and continued to shake his head. "You're lying," came out barely more than a whisper. Seto sighed. He had to somehow prove to him he wouldn't hurt him. But he was going to have to show him.

Seto leaned over and kissed him tenderly on the lips. He removed his own robes so he was in nothing but a pair of light pants. "I'm going to prove to you I won't hurt you." 

****

*Yami Yami Yugi peaks out from the side of computer screen* Hi everyone. If I could just have a moment here. This will only take a second. Okay. Here's how it is. See I've been working my computer to death trying to write a lemon for this. I've re-read every lemon and lime my eyes have every rested upon trying to write my own. Well, I couldn't do it. I have one written, sort of, and I'm not at all happy with it. Also, FF.net is taking this no NC-17 thing very seriously these days so this is what I'm gonna do. When I have a lemon I'm happy with I'll make an announcement. If you want it just leave your e-mail and I'll send it. But not yet. I'll tell you when the time comes. That's all. Sorry for taking up your time. It won't happen again. *Back to the fic*

****

A figure stood outside in the darkness. His lean figure resting back on the wall of a building, his cold brown eyes set before him, he waited. His body was cloaked in the darkness of a shadow and a hood all but covered his face. He had been standing there for hours. Waiting for his companion.

__

'Where is he?' he thought. _'He said he would be back before midnight. I hope the fool didn't get himself into any trouble.'_

In the distance he saw someone approaching. He fingered the dagger around his belt. Can't be too careful. But he relaxed when he saw the familiar spiky blonde hair.

"What took you?" he asked in a low voice.

"Worried about me?"

"You wish. So how'd you do?"

The blonde gave the thumbs up, their own little code. The other removed his hood to reveal his long white hair. "Excellent."

"So when do we do this?"

The white haired one waved his finger. "Patience Ishtar, patience. The time will come for our raid, but only when the time comes. Not before. When the time comes it will come, and we'll be ready for it when it does."

"You do realize you just said the same thing, like, three times? And where do you come up with this stuff anyway?"

"Hey, when you're a master thief you get lots of time to think. I just comes to me. I'm gifted."

Ishtar rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Bakura."

****

Yami Yami Yugi: Okay okay, so it's short. It would have been longer but the lemon thing didn't work out.

Yugi: But get this, the next chapter will be out really soon.

Jou: Half of it is already done. It will be out before the end of the month.

All: *gulp* We hope.


	7. Chapter Seven

Yami Yami Yugi: I'm back in time for Christmas! How are you? Miss me?

Jou: Well actually…

YYY: Don't answer.

Yugi: Can I?

YYY: Depends. Is your answer same as his?

Yugi: Uhh…

YYY: Then no. And now we get down to the important stuff. Today is going to be a slightly happier chapter.

Jou: It's gonna have magic, and reunions, and surprises, and laughs, and at the end there's gonna be…

YYY: Shut up! Do you wanna give the whole thing away?!?! Again, don't answer. Oh! And thanks to one of the readers who pointed out a mistake I made in a previous chapter with the collars. That was an old version of the story and I meant to delete it. It's fixed now.

****

Disclaimer and Warning: Do I have to keep doing this?

****

"Yugi. Yugi." Yami gently shook him awake. "Come on. Wake up."

"Huh? Wha…" Yugi sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What's going on?"

"It's morning, that's what's going on. Now get up. We have some things to do today."

Yugi nodded and got out of bed. Once he was dressed Yami led him out of the room and down the hallway. "Where are we going Yami?"

"To see a friend. Don't worry, I think you'll like this." 

They stopped at the other end of the hall in front of a silver door. Yami's puzzle glowed before he placed his hand on the door. It opened and he peaked in, just incase he was walking in on something.

"Seto?" No answer. He opened the door completely only to find that the room was empty. "I wonder where they went."

****

"Where are we going?"

"Why do you ask so many questions? It doesn't matter because you are going to find out in a matter of minutes anyway!"

Jounouchi growled and kept following. He gets woken up at the crack of dawn and gets yanked away to Ra knows where. He also had to wear these stupid clothes that made him Seto's possession. He sighed. '_Why me?'_

At least one good thing came from all of this. He glanced down at his ankle. Last night just before he fell asleep Seto took the band off his leg.

__

'Hmm. Maybe I should test it out. Just to make sure I can.' 

He grinned and extended his palm towards the ground in front of Seto, being careful that nobody noticed. His eyes glowed blue for a second before a small stream of water shot from his hand to the floor.

"Woah!" Jounouchi smirked. 

'The eagle has landed… very hard on his butt I might add.' 

"Damn. Where the hell did this come from!" He tried to stand up only to slip again. 

A small giggle was heard behind them. Seto turned around to see a young girl watering some plants. "Why you little…" She let out a small yell before he sent her to the shadow realm.

Jounouchi gasped. "Bring her back! Hurry!"

"Why should I? She was probably the one who spilled the water, and she disrespected my by laughing."

"She wasn't laughing at you! She didn't even see you till you sent her to the shadows. So bring her back." He was getting nervous. It was his fault because he made Seto slip, and she wouldn't be able to survive in that realm for very long.

"I don't have the time. Now come on." The turned around and resumed walking.

"Please Master!" he begged grabbing his sleeve. Seto turned around and was about to say something but stopped when he saw the look he was getting. With the eyes and the face… The damn dog was giving the most pathetic look he had ever seen. Damn.

"… Oh fine!" A second later the little red head was in a heap on the floor, shaking. "Happy? Now move it puppy."

Jounouchi shot a concerned look at the girl before following. She looked… familiar…

****

Marik and Ryou nervously followed the guards. They were stopped in the middle of working and were being dragged off to who knows where.

'What did we do?' Ryou mouthed.

'I have no idea,' Marik answered.

"Hey! Keep up you two. You don't want to keep the Pharaoh waiting."

__

'Pharaoh!?' they both thought at the same time. Why did that not sound good. 

The two of them were shoved into another room and the guards slammed the doors behind them. "Marik! Ryou!" Before either of their brains could put together a coherent thought they were tackled down by a multi-colored midget.

"Yugi!?" they both asked at the same time before bringing him in for a hug.

"You're alright!" Ryou exclaimed happily. "We were so worried."

Marik nodded. "I swear if that no good son of a bitch has done anything to hurt you I'll…"

"Marik, stop," Yugi held up his hand. "I'm fine. Yami's been really nice to me, really! It's been great."

"So he hasn't…"

"If he was planning on it he hasn't done it yet."

"Good, because…"

Yami shut the door to the room the three were in. It felt sort of wrong to be eavesdropping on their reunion. He paced in front of the entrance for a few moments before looking up to see his High Priestess coming towards him with her servant.

"What took so long Isis?"

"Forgive me my Pharaoh." She bowed. "Serenity came running to me in hysterics and took a while to calm her. Apparently the High Priest sent her to the shadow Realm while she was watering some plants. Then he brought he back a few minutes later for some reason."

The young girl beside her, Serenity, stepped forward. "Please forgive me. I am the one at fault."

"It's alright," Yami said. "But really should be going. Just make sure nobody goes into this room. I'd have a guard do this, but I'd feel more comfortable with you."

"It's no trouble, my Pharaoh. I have no plans, and Serenity can keep me company."

Yami nodded. "I'll be back in a hour at the most."

****

Jounouchi sat in a corner of the training room watching Seto and his little brother. He was teaching him some basic spells and battle tactics. Right now he was working on blocking attacks with both magic and body. He seemed to be having some trouble.

"Good Mokuba! Careful! Here comes another one." Seto continued to shout as Mokuba blocked and dodged a few more spells and light objects.

"Don't worry. I've got everything under…"

"Mokuba, on the left!"

"Huh?" He turned to get hit in the face with a small sack. It opened and got him covered with feathers.

"Mokuba." Seto half wined.

Jounouchi giggled as the young boy sneezed causing the feathers to jump and fly. He only laughed harder when both Mokuba and Seto were hit with another sack full of white powder. 

"Hey!" Seto shouted, brushing the powder off. Jounouchi stopped laughing. "Do you think you could do better?"

Jounouchi gulped but then remembered he had his powers again. "Well actually," he stood up, "I think I'd like to try."

****

"There is something else," Yugi said after they caught up on a few things.

"What?"

"Well…" he started looking a little too innocent.

"Yes?"

~ I've got my powers back! ~ He said telepathically.

"YOU WHAT!"

****

YYY: I think that is a good place to leave it don't you?

*Readers look ready to start a riot*

YYY: *nervously* Hehehe… Well, I got it out fast, didn't I?

*Readers still don't look very happy.*

YYY: Umm…Well…

*Pitchforks and tomatoes start to appear.*

YYY: Ack! Yugi! Jou! Quick! Defensive distraction maneuver twelve!

Yugi and Jou: *hula dancing in grass skirts and playing ukuleles* *singing Lilo and Stitch opening song* 

Aloha

You'll find the place where you belong

Ohana

A family to call your own

Where you feel at home!

Illiah O kowa ila 

Aloh manahini ohana

Welcome cousins 

A come on by

Aloha e como mi

Aloha e como mi!

Aka tooki neeha

Aka tooki neeha

Aka tiki baba

Aka tiki baba

Gato titshi gatsuba

Gato titshi gatsuba

Oosha

Oosha

Neeha

Neeha

Ity bity cooconut!

Illiah O kowa ila 

Aloh manahini ohana

Welcome cousins 

A come one by

Aloha e como mi

Aloha e como mi!

Readers: O_O;;


	8. Chapter Eight

Yami Yami Yugi: I'm alive! Wee! I'm so happy I'm going cry! Over 100 Reviews! 112 in fact! Yay! You have all made me a happy, happy author! Thank You all so much!

Yugi: While she runs around the house screaming, me and Jou are going to have to take care of the authors note.

Jou: Okay, so I guess we had better start with saying sorry for not updating in, what, three month? Four Months? But just remember that YYY is not about to give up. Just a bit of writer's block.

YYY: Yeah. You see I started this with the traditional plot in line. Yami meets Yugi. Yami loves Yugi. Yugi loves Yami. Corrupt council is jealous. Corrupt council kidnaps Yugi. Yami saves Yugi. Council is sentenced to death. Yami and Yugi live happily ever after with Jounouchi, Seto, Ryou, Bakura, Malik, and Ishtar who worked their way into the story.

But one thing led to another and I suddenly came up with something new to work into this. Then I think a small dash from the real Yu-Gi-Oh. And how about I add some more of this to this. And you get the idea.

Yugi: We do?

YYY: Yes you do.

Jou: Really, cause it's weird. I lost you somewhere around 'happy, happy author' picked up at my name, but lost you again at 'Ryou.' Now see how does that work out cause a total of five words don't really qualify as getting the idea. Of course you have to take into account how many words there are in total. If there were only say six to start with then that would be… continues on for a few hours …which is why the meaning of life is cheese. Any questions?

YYY: Do you have any three's?

Yugi: Go fish.

YYY: Oh! Are you done? Well then let's get a move on.

Jou: But I…

* * *

Warning and Disclaimer: You are generally smart people, right? cough Well, you are smart enough to get it by now anyway.

* * *

Chapter 8

Three young slaves sat in a small circle in the large room. They were all chatting happily with one another, catching up on, well, everything.

"So he just took it off? Just like that?"

Yugi sighed. "Yes Malik, I've said it ten times already. He just took it off."

"But he just took…"

"Malik!" Ryou interrupted. "Yugi has made it very clear that the Pharaoh took the stupid band off. Next topic please."

"Okay, so do you have everything back now, or do you still have to get some others?"

"I don't really know. Let's see. I can still obviously talk telepathically. I made a plant grow last night. What else?" He scrunched up his face trying to remember what else he could do.

"Can you make Malik fly across the room?" Ryou asked with an innocent look on his face.

"I don't know?" Yugi said with a wink. "I'd better give it a try."

"What? No wait! Can't we talk about this? Ahhhhhh!"

Yugi and Ryou laughed as the former made his friend fly from one side of the room to the other with a series of loops and twists. He finally dropped him down on the floor where he glared up at them.

"Yes, I think it works just fine," Ryou said calmly.

"Oh ha ha. See? I'm laughing."

* * *

"PHARAOH YAMI!"

The council members jumped at the sound as Yami stood up from his seat. Through the doors stormed in a pissed of and shocked looking High Priest dragging a scared looking slave behind him.

"What's the meaning of this Seto?"

"What's the meaning of this? I'LL SHOW YOU THE MEANING OF THIS!" He grabbed Jounouchi and pushed him a small ways away from him. He then took out two daggers and threw them at him.

"Wah!" The other boy shut his eyes and put his hands in front of his face as if feeble attempt to protect himself. The next thing anyone knew his hands glowed blue and the daggers were replaced by feathers, just inches from his face.

"See? See what I mean? He's- He's- I don't know what he is! But he's something else!"

"Calm yourself Seto," Yami said, trying to keep his patience. Turning to the slave who was now backed against the wall he asked, "What are you?" The boy remained silent. "Well? Explain this!"

"I can't!" he blurted out and quickly covered his mouth with his hands.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I just can't! I don't know why I can do these things. It's just something I've always been able to do. Since I was little."

"Really? Seto?" He turned to his High Priest who had calmed down some. "Mokuba knows how to use his Key, right?"

"Of course."

"Good. Have him join us."

* * *

"Okay Bakura," Ishtar said to the other thief. "So how about telling me what it is that we're doing tonight anyway?"

He sighed and sat down. "Fine. I might as well as we're doing this tonight. We're going to get two of the seven Millennium Items."

"No way!" Ishtar's voice was full of excitement. "Are you serious? The Millennium Items are the most powerful items in Egypt! But wait," he frowned. "Why only two? Why not get all seven?"

"Because, that would be stupid," Bakura explained. "The other five items already belong to people in the palace, including the Pharaoh and High Priest. If we jump in and just take them I can grantee we won't leave alive. What we have to do is get the un-owned items from the palace and learn to use them. Then we pick off the others one by one. It will take some time. But we have to be patient. Does that make sense?" he asked.

Ishtar leaned back on the ground. "I guess. But it'll be worth it in the end. I can't wait!"

"Well like I said, you're going to have to. Just a little longer."

* * *

"Hey Yugi," Malik said. "I just had a thought."

"Wow. That's new."

Malik scowled at Ryou. "I'm ignoring you. Anyway, I was just thinking that since you don't have the band on anymore, you might be able to take ours off."

"Hey! That's a good idea. Give it a shot Yugi."

"Well, okay." He moved closer to Ryou and moved his hand to the band. But as he got closer a spark of energy erupted from it and hit his hand. "Ow! I guess not."

They sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot. I guess only a master can remove them."

"Look, let's just put him with the others for now and we'll figure out how to get through in the meantime," came a voice from outside. The doors opened and someone pushed a figure inside. "Maybe he's just not experienced enough to handle the Key and…" the voices faded as the doors shut and they moved away.

The three friends looked at each other and then at the person who was on the floor in front of them. He was just lying there, unmoving. The way he was positioned they couldn't see his face, but it was obviously a boy.

Yugi finally stepped forward. "Hey, are you okay?"

The boy sat up slowly and turned around to face them. Yugi gasped.

"Jou- Jounouchi?" he whispered.

"Yugi…"

Yugi gave a shout of joy. "Jounouchi it's you!" he said running over. "You're okay!"

He fell to his knees to give him a hug which Jounouchi gladly returned. Ryou and Malik joined them a few seconds later in their reunion.

* * *

YYY: Okay, so it's not as long as it could have been, but if I did anything more, you probably would have had to wait a few more months.

Yugi: And we just don't have that. See, this summer, Yami Yami Yugi's going to go away for four weeks, come back for one day, then go away for three more weeks.

Jou: Then she'll have about two weeks off before having to go to Virginia for a week. So we are going to try to satisfy you with as much as we can before she goes.

YYY: So expect another chapter soon. (Wow, how many times have you heard me say that?)


	9. Chapter Nine

Yami Yami Yugi: This has got to be the fastest update I've ever done. I think.  
  
Yugi: Nah. You were way better at the very beginning.  
  
Jou: Yeah, then you sort of slacked off at chapter four.  
  
Yugi: And from there she just really got lazy.  
  
Jou: Three months for a second rate chapter.  
  
Yugi: shaking head Very unprofessional.  
  
YYY: Alright already! I get it.  
  
Jou: And you can't forget the time she left the story alone in mid chapter for two months and didn't give it a single thought.  
  
Yugi: Or that she skipped out on the Lemon entirely!  
  
YYY: Yugi! Jou!

* * *

Disclaimer: I can happily say that I don't own any Yu-Gi-Oh characters because I have stolen them away for a twenty five million hundred dollar bill award. And unless someone decides to pay up, I'm keeping them.

* * *

Chapter Nine  
  
"Yami, this is serious," Seto said pacing the room. Only he, Yami, and Isis were present as they wanted to discuss it privately. "I mean if he has those kinds of powers, then who knows what else he could do?"  
  
"And who else could do it," Isis cut in. "I mean it's very unlikely that he's the only one who can do this. He could have friends, family."  
  
Yami nodded. "Yes. I suspect Yugi may have similar powers. He does have a strange aura around him. At first I thought it was just that I was attracted to him, but now..." He frowned. "And it also didn't appear until last night."  
  
"Yeah," Seto said. "Yeah, that's right. That Jounouchi's aura didn't really appear till last night after, ahem. Well, until last night."  
  
"After what, Seto?" Yami teased. "Go on. You can tell us." He put an arm over his shoulder and grinned.  
  
Seto rolled his eyes. "Please. And you are supposed to be Pharaoh, 'Mr. Maturity'?" He shoved him away and turned around to hide his blush.  
  
Yami tackled him from behind and landed on his back piggy-back style. "Come on, Seto! Please?"  
  
The High Priest scowled. "Get off of me!" Yami just grinned and started to mess up his friend's hair.  
  
"Hmm. I wonder." The two of them paused in their antics. Seto lifted his head causing Yami, who was being supported by it, to fall to the floor.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, I have a theory that the two of them getting this power might have something to do with being close together. Yami, what time did you notice this aura?"  
  
"I think it was a little while after we went in to bed," Yami said.  
  
"Really?" Seto smirked. "Then what happened?"  
  
"Oh shut up. I haven't done anything to him yet. Unlike you. You haven't stopped blushing since I mentioned it earlier."  
  
"You keep your mouth shut! At least I'm not afraid to do anything with my slave."  
  
"I'm not afraid of anything!"  
  
"Oh yeah? Well what about that Zombie monster that I scared you with that made you wet your pants? Huh, well?"  
  
"That was a long time ago. I was five and stupid."  
  
"Aha! So you admit it. You said you're stupid!"  
  
"I did not you liar!"  
  
"Porcupine head!"  
  
"Big nose!"  
  
"Hey! You want to duel for this?"  
  
"You're on!"  
  
"CHILDERN!"  
  
Yami and Seto jumped and looked at Isis.  
  
"Would you please stop your fighting? We have more important things to discuss. What were you fighting about anyway?"  
  
"Umm, I don't remember. Do you?"  
  
"Not a clue."  
  
"Oh, okay."  
  
Isis sighed and sat down. These two were absolutely useless.

* * *

"So then he's okay?" Malik asked. Jounouchi was just finishing his story of what happened and how he got to the palace. "I mean, he didn't really hurt you or anything."  
  
Jounouchi scoffed. "Please. I hate him. He can run headlong into a hungry heard of Twin-Headed Fire Dragons for all I care."  
  
"But Jounouchi, you said he wasn't that bad," Yugi said.  
  
"He wasn't. But I still hate him."  
  
Ryou sighed. "Okay, next subject. Jounouchi, you said he took your band off. So can you..."  
  
"Oh yeah!" He jumped up. "I think I tested most of them already. I did a test with water and made his High Priestly ness slip. Then I transfigured... oops."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I did in front of the whole council. They know!"  
  
"Jounouchi! How could you?" Malik shouted.  
  
"Two daggers were thrown at me! I was just acting on reflex. Of course I probably wouldn't have had to if I didn't do anything if I didn't show off at his little brother's training session. Ow!"  
  
Ryou had slapped him upside the head. "Anything _else_?"  
  
"Well I did sort of mention that I had a deck and showed it to him... Ow! Will you quit that!" Malik had added another bump to his head.  
  
"Anything else, our _dear_ friend Jounouchi?"  
  
"Well, I did manage get a little girl sent to the Shadow Realm, but I got him to bring her back! Hey!" Three hands landed on his head this time. "Okay! Alright already! That's it I swear."  
  
"Well," Yugi said. "It's really no harm done. ("Except to my head!" Jounouchi said) we can just have Ryou clear that part of their memories later. So have you tried teleporting yet?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Ahh!" Malik shouted as Jounouchi appeared behind him, earning him another bump to his collection.  
  
"Well, I guess that's everything. Except..." A smile appeared on Yugi's face as he pulled out his deck. Jounouchi grinned and followed the suit.  
  
"I summon, Dark Magician!"  
  
"I summon, Flame Swordsman!"

* * *

Yami frowned and took out him deck. He held out one card in front of him and his Dark Magician bowed before him. "What is it?" He asked the monster.  
  
"Master," the magician replied. "I have detected to presence of another Dark Magician in the Palace."  
  
"What!"  
  
"Another one?"  
  
"Where is it?" Yami asked.  
  
"In the Northwest corridor. The second conference room."  
  
Yami took off, the other two at his heels. He didn't understand it. The Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh alone should have control over the Dark Magician. So how could another one get in the palace? But what concerned him the most was that it was in the same room as Yugi and his friends. This meant that someone was either attacking them, or one of them summoned the Magician.  
  
He could see the room ahead. As he drew nearer, he could hear laughing coming from inside. He was almost there.  
  
Yami burst through the door, causing the occupants to jump and look toward him. Three of them bowed the next second, but Yugi just sort of fell backwards onto his bottom. They were alone. There was no dark magician, or any sort of monster, to speak of in this room.  
  
He looked at his won Dark Magician. "Well?"  
  
"It was gone the second we entered."  
  
"Can you find the source?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Seto?"  
  
"Right." The High Priest took out the Millennium Rod and prepared to force one of them to tell them what happened. He pointed it at Jounouchi and began to enter his mind. But before he got a chance to take control, he was forced back. The next thing he knew, both he and his slave were thrown backwards and onto the floor.  
  
Seto frowned. The same thing happened when Mokuba tried. He was still young, so he didn't think much of it, but he didn't expect himself to be pushed out.  
  
"Try one of the others," Yami said. Seto nodded and tried the one with white hair. The same thing happened.  
  
"I don't understand it! They are immune to the Rod or something.  
  
Yami nodded and looked at the nervous slaves. There was something wrong with them...

* * *

YYY: I know it's really short, but hey! I got it out really fast. I mean look! It's the day after!  
  
Yugi: So now it's up to you. Do you want shorter chapters and fast updates...  
  
Jou: Or long chapters and monthly updates?  
  
YYY: I think I know your answer, but it's still nice to ask.  
  
Yugi: And we want more reviews! The last batch was a big disappointment.  
  
Jou: Yeah! What was it, like five or six. If you guys don't step up we may just bring in Pegasus and make him sing karaoke for you.  
  
YYY: With that threat in mind, see you all next time. 


	10. Chapter Ten

Yami Yami Yugi: You guys must be thrilled. A chapter a day? It's amazing!  
  
Jou: Yeah, amazing I'm still alive over here. This woman is a nightmare!  
  
Yugi: What are you talking about? I love her!  
  
Jou: You're only saying that because she gives you sugary substances every day.  
  
Yugi: So?  
  
YYY: Wow! Can't beat that logic! So anyway, I am also happy to say that with this new breakthrough in typing, the Lemon is almost done. Just a few more adjustments and you will be getting e-mails.  
  
Jou: But keep in mind this is her first lemon.  
  
Yugi: Right, so be nice. And anybody, you can still be put on the mailing list for it. It's never too late.  
  
YYY: So if you asked for the lemon, please check your e-mails in the following week. The subject will be SetoxJou Yami Yami Yugi's Lemon. It's almost done!

* * *

Disclaimer: Not mine... Blah blah blah. Yadda Yadda. You know.

* * *

Chapter Ten  
  
Two cloaked figures approached the palace at a quick pace. Easily passing by the guards, they slowed down as they approached a bunch of windows with bars on them.  
  
"Well?" Bakura asked. "Which one is it?"  
  
"This one," Ishtar said moving to one of the windows. These two bars come loose, so we can fit in easily."  
  
It took them only a minute to get the bars loose, get inside, and slip them back into place. Silently, they slipped out of the empty cell and into the palace.

* * *

Yugi sat quietly on in of the chairs in the Pharaoh's room. He was alone at the moment, and had plenty of time to think. They had all been separated once again, but luckily nobody had figured out what was causing this, so he had his powers. But he didn't dare use them. That would be a foolish mistake. He knew very well he was being watched.  
  
So for the past hours he had been sitting in the chair, unmoving, and staring at the floor. Night had already fallen, and he tried to figure out exactly how long he had been sitting there. But his mind kept wandering to what had happened to his friends. He could just see them being tortured or something for information. He shuddered and hoped he was wrong.  
  
The door swung open and Yugi looked up, expecting to see the Pharaoh. But instead Jounouchi was pushed in by a guard.  
  
"Five Minutes!" the man shouted before closing the door. Jounouchi took no notice but rushed to his friend and placed his hands on his shoulders.  
  
"Yugi, are you alright? Have they hurt you?" he whispered.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "No I'm fine. How did you get here?" he whispered back.  
  
"I screamed and stomped and threw a temper tantrum until they let me see you."  
  
"You could have gotten in real trouble you know," Yugi whispered with a concerned look on his face.  
  
"Like we aren't already in trouble. Listen," he lowered his voice even more. "I'd be out of here in a second, but I can't teleport any other people. My powers have been dormant for so long, it could be a while before I can. And that's if I get a chance to practice. So we'll have to find a different way to escape."  
  
"Then what, Jounouchi? We'd have nowhere to go. Our best chance is to stay here unless our lives are threatened. Okay?"  
  
Jounouchi sighed and nodded. "Alright. Have you had any word of Ryou of Malik?"  
  
"Nothing. I hoped you would. I hope they're alright."  
  
"Me too." Footsteps could be heard outside. "I guess I have to go. Stay strong Yugi, we'll figure out something."  
  
Yugi nodded and gave his friend a quick hug before he was taken away again.  
  
A few moments later Yami came in. His face was expressionless as he walked in and sat on the bed. He motioned for Yugi to sit next to him. Yugi did as he was told, keeping his head down the entire time.  
  
There were a few minutes of silence before Yami spoke.  
  
"Yugi, when you first came here I told you that I would not hurt you. I intend to keep that promise, but I need something from you." He looked at the younger boy, who kept his eyes down. "I need you to tell me what's going on. Tell me what was going on in that room. Tell me why your friends were not affected by the Millennium Rod. I need to know, Yugi."  
  
Yugi still didn't look up or speak. Yami lifted his chin so he would look at him. "Tell me Yugi."

* * *

"Come here, Jounouchi." Seto said when the boy returned. He was sitting on one of the couches in his room with his arms and legs crossed, and a hard expression on his face.  
  
Jounouchi scowled, but did as he was told, and sat next to the High Priest.  
  
"What are you," Seto said. His voice was still and calm. "You can do these things like when you changed the daggers and that trick with your deck. Why?" He looked at him. "What are you?"  
  
Jounouchi turned away. "I don't have to tell you anything. Ow!" Seto had gripped his arm and twisted it slightly.  
  
"I am trying to be patient with you," he said, his voice quivering slightly. "I am trying to be nice; to not hurt you. But you are making this very difficult." He released his arm. "I'll ask you again. What are you?"  
  
The young boy rubbed his sore arm and looked down. "I'm not sure what I am," he said quietly, almost whispering. "I've always been able to do these things but I've never understood why. I just accepted it."  
  
Seto frowned. That wasn't very helpful, but at least he was telling him something. It was a start.  
  
"Can anybody else do things like this?"  
  
Jounouchi didn't respond, but just looked in the other direction. Seto took it as a yes.  
  
"Who? Who else?"  
  
"I can't tell you," came the quiet reply.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I said I can't tell you."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because I won't put them at risk!" he shouted standing up. Breathing heavily, he said in a low voice, "I won't tell you."  
  
Seto frowned. He really wasn't going to tell him. True, he was already almost positive that his friends that were in the room could do these things, but he wanted to get it from him. But his loyalty was too strong. Seto sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get any farther with him.  
  
"Fine. I'm going. I won't be back for awhile, so go to sleep or just sit around or something. But do not leave this room." With that last order, he left.  
  
Jounouchi stood there for a few more moments before relaxing and falling onto Seto's bed. He was in such deep shit.  
  
_'What am I going to do?'_ he wondered to himself. '_It's only a matter of time before he figures out that the others have powers. And that's if he hasn't already. This is not good... Hey! This thing is pretty comfortable!'_ He sat up and hopped slightly. 'And bouncy.'  
  
He bounced a few more times on his bottom and smiled. _'This is kind of fun.'_

* * *

Seto met Yami and Isis in the throne room.  
  
"Did you get anything out of him?" Yami asked.  
  
Seto shook his head. "Not really. He sort of told me there were others who could do the sort of things he could, but refused to say who."  
  
Yami nodded. "Yugi said that he could do things like that too, but wouldn't say what kinds of things. Other than that, his answer was pretty much the same. What about you Isis?"  
  
She gave them a grim smile. "I got diddly squat from my two." Yami and Seto smirked at her choice of words. "It's obvious that both of them have at least some kind of power. But I couldn't get anything out of them, so I just sent them back to their quarters."  
  
"So we have nothing except that they all can do at least something."  
  
"Yeah, basically," Yami said.  
  
They were interrupted by a pair of guards running in. "What is the meaning of this?" Yami ordered.  
  
"Forgive me my Pharaoh," the first one said. "But there are intruders in the palace. They were spotted on the third floor corridor." Yami gasped. That was where the remaining two Millennium Items were. "We currently have several guards in pursuit."  
  
"Good, we'll join them." He rushed out of the room with Seto, Isis, and finally the two guards behind him.

* * *

"You moron! You fucking idiot!"  
  
"Stop yelling at me and keep going!" Ishtar shouted as they ran back to the cells. "How was I supposed to know it would trigger an alarm? That part of the plan was yours!"  
  
Bakura made a rude gesture and ran faster. They were almost to the exit. "Which one is it?" he asked. They had lost the guards, for the moment, but they had to keep moving.  
  
"This one!" He yanked the door open but and ran in. Bakura followed but then bumped into him.  
  
"Why did you stop!" Ishtar pointer at the two slaves that were standing before them. "Damn! Just take them with us; they'll blab."  
  
He grabbed one of the boys and yanked him through the window. Ishtar did the same and followed him.  
  
Once outside the palace walls, they didn't stop running, but were able to talk. "At least we got what we came for," Ishtar said holding up the Millennium Eye. Bakura grinned and flashed him the Millennium Ring.

* * *

"My Pharaoh," a guard bowed in front of him. "The thieves have escaped, taking two of the Millennium Items with them."  
  
Yami swore under his breath. "Anything else?" he said, trying to keep his voice steady.  
  
"Nothing but a pair of slave that were in the cell they escaped from."  
  
"Do you know the number of the cell?" he asked.  
  
"It's number 26-8."  
  
Yami swore again. That was the cell those two boys were in.

* * *

YYY: Well, there you have it. I love leaving them at cliffhangers.  
  
Yugi: Yeah, but the reviewers don't seen to appreciate it very much.  
  
Jou: Yeah, and they have those pointy objects that you have been threatened with before.  
  
YYY: Oh, They'll get over it. I mean look! I'm doing a chapter a day here! I'm taking advantage of this while I'm still hot! 


	11. Chapter Eleven

Yami Yami Yugi: Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter took a little longer, but I figured three consecutive chapters should be able to hold you for now.

Yugi: Besides, the four day weekend is over, and while she was writing fan fiction, there was a three page paper on the Unification of Italy that needed writing.

Jou: And she didn't remember until the teacher asked them to pass them in.

YYY: So now I have to spend my whole night writing a late paper.

Yugi: And as for the lemon, you may have to wait just a few more days.

Jou: See, it was almost done when the power went out and took half of the damn thing with it, so she has to rewrite it.

YYY: But I do have some good news: I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geiko!

Yugi: --;

Jou: --; you aren't even old enough to drive.

YYY: So?

* * *

Answers to the Reviewers:

S. Chensu and Luff: Yes! It's true! There is an intelligent reader viewing my stories! Thank Ra! And to answer your question, yes, their powers do have to do with the elements. I'm trying to drag this out, so it may be a while before we really get into that. Or not. You never know ;) And also, if you look back at that chapter, the flashback is there now. So there you go!

alostblackcat: Sorry I left you last time with a cliffy and no fast update. But here you go, as late as it is. And if you want the lemon, just leave me your e-mail and wait for it to be finished. I'm a procrastinator.

* * *

Disclaimer: I have a lovely bunch of coconuts (dee dil lee dee) There they are standing in the road (bum bum bum) Big ones, Small ones, Ones as big as your head… I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, so bite me!

* * *

Chapter Eleven

Bakura and Ishtar didn't stop running until they reached their hide-away. And the second they arrived they collapsed on their own beds.

"Well," Ishtar said, breathing heavily. "That could have been worse."

Bakura rolled his eyes, but sighed. "Yeah, I guess. We still got our lovely Millennium items." He held up the ring to a candle and admired it for a second. "And, we nabbed a pair of slaves as well."

He stood up and walked over to the two boys who, up to this point, had just been standing silently at the entrance.

He looked at the up and down carefully. One of them was very tan, had pale blonde hair, and lavender eyes, as well as an air of defiance around him. The other one, he noticed, looked remarkably like him, but his features were softer and he seemed kind of a pushover. But still, he was attractive.

"I get this one tonight," he said pulling him roughly by his hair. The boy gave a slight yelp, but Bakura took no notice.

"No!" Ishtar said. "I wanted him! Fine, but I want a switch tomorrow!"

"Okay, but just… Ah!" He stumbled backward and let go of the boy to clutch his stomach where he had been hit. "Why you…"

The blond slave stood looking like he had still just thrown a punch before straitening up and turning to his friend.

"Are you okay, Ryou?"

"Have you lost your mind!"

"Wha-?"

"You're going to get us both kil- ack!"

He fell to the side as Malik was pushed to the floor where Bakura stood dangerously above him. "What do you think you're playing at?"

Malik just smirked, causing Bakura to become even more irritated. "You little…" He aimed a punch but before he could do anything…

"Hold it!" Ryou stepped between them. "He's not you're to control tonight, remember." He pointed to himself and gave a smirk. "You choose me and you're stuck with that choice until morning. So unless he gives you permission to beat the crap out of Malik." He pointed at Ishtar, "I don't think you can touch him."

He looked at Ishtar who had been watching the exchange silently, "And let me tell you, a beat up slave isn't nearly as much fun as one who still has strength."

"Uhh…" Bakura blinked stupidly, still poised to strike the slave.

"What the hell do you thing you're doing?" Malik muttered from the corner of his mouth.

"I'm saving your friggin life," he muttered back.

"Fine!" Bakura said. He dropped his fist and instead grabbed Ryou and threw him onto the bed. But he did it kind of fast and Ryou slid across it and landed on the floor on the other side.

He reappeared a second later looking pissed. "Hey! What did I just say about a beat up slave!?"

* * *

YYY: Okay. This is where I would probably put what happens next, but since I haven't even finished the first lemon, I don't think I'm in any position to write two more. So let's just skip ahead to the palace, K?

* * *

Seto burst into his room, threw his cloak somewhere, and collapsed on the bed. What a day! Closely followed by what a night. Two Items missing, two rather important slaves missing, and two very important authority figures coming close to losing what little sanity they had left, the last one of course referring to himself and Yami.

He gave a frustrated sigh and turned over on his stomach, flinging his arms out to the side, and hit something.

He lifted his head to see that boy asleep a small ways away from him. Of course. Yet another reason for his misery. And at the same time, one of his only sources of happiness. Which leads us back to the misery part.

Jounouchi, something about him, made him feel so strangely. It was kind of like how he felt for Mokuba, only different. But at the same time entirely the same.

And it gave him a massive headache.

He growled and dropped his head on his pillow again with a soft thump. It was too late and he was too tired. He was shocked he even had the strength to breathe.

Slowly, Seto drifted into sleep. The last thing he knew before completely drifting away was a sudden warmth next to him. Not quite sure what it was, he fell asleep enjoying the feeling.

* * *

Yugi jumped and crumpled the piece of piece of papyrus he was using as Yami burst in looking like shit. Yugi, who was on the opposite side of the room, quickly scrambled onto one of the couches and pretended to be asleep.

He heard some movement and felt Yami come closer. He did his best to steady his breathing and not to jump when he felt the cushion sink next to him.

"What am I going to do?" he heard Yami say. Yugi felt a hand go through his hair and then lightly down his cheek. He shifted slightly.

The next thing he knew, he was slowly being picked up and carried somewhere. He felt himself being placed on the bed, and a sheet lifted to cover him.

Hearing footsteps walking away from him, he dared a peak out of one eye. Seeing that Yami was not looking at him, he opened the other eye and watched him.

Yami was at his desk, writing something. He seemed very involved with whatever it was. For about a half hour he wrote on numerous scrolls, and for about half and hour Yugi watched.

When he was done, Yami rolled up the scrolls and opened a drawer. Yugi squinted, trying to see what he was taking out. It looked like a chest, but very out of place in the Pharaoh's room. It looked very old and made of badly carved wood.

Still, he handled it very carefully, like it was some kind of treasure.

Yugi watched as he placed the scrolls inside and shut it. He placed it back to its original holding place, and Yugi frowned. For some reason he had to see what was in that chest.

Yami blew out the remaining candles, and Yugi shut his eyes as he walked over to the bed.

When he was sure Yami had fallen asleep he opened his eyes and looked through the dark room at the desk. He was going to have to get into there.

He sighed and looked at the papyrus he still had crumpled in his hand. He would have to finish later.

* * *

Malik collapsed on the small bed, Ishtar right next to him. Breathing hard, he managed the strength to look at the other bed on the other side of the room. He winced. Ryou was still being used by Bakura.

He closed his eyes, trying not to listen to what was going on there. It wasn't like he hadn't heard it before, but knowing your best friend is being raped and you can't do anything about it… Well, that's just not something you get used to.

But even if they couldn't completely stop it, they were each there for each other to soften the blow. That line Ryou had used on Bakura: "a beat up slave isn't nearly as much fun as one who still has strength." He did that to their old master too, so they could take turns every night.

And Malik made sure Ryou wasn't hurt more than necessary, just as he had done earlier. But before Malik could get punished for it, Ryou would step in with another clever excuse.

They always played off each other just as they had tonight, and it worked. But Malik wasn't sure how long they would be able to manage here.

Sure, it worked on their old master for four years, but the man was a moron! Thieves had to be smart, and clever to be able to get around traps and guards.

He heard a sound next to him and jumped slightly, but relaxed when he realized that Ishtar person was snoring. Speaking of which, his eyelids were feeling pretty heavy as well.

Turning on his side so his back was to Ishtar, he started to fall asleep when he realized what a perfect view he had of the other bed. Cringing slightly, he turned over on his other side, deciding sleeping closer to his kidnapper was better than witching his friend get raped. Besides, it was warmer here…

* * *

Bakura collapsed on the small bed breathing hard. He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. It had been a while a while since he had done that with anyone. When you spend all your time trying to train Ishtar, you hardly have the time to pick up someone to sleep with.

Needless to say, he enjoyed it. And he had a feeling he wasn't the only one, and he wasn't referring to Ishtar.

He looked at the boy next to him. Ryou, was his name, right? He was breathing harder than even him. His face was dripping with sweat and stained with tears, but he didn't look upset. Not angry, or even scared.

Bakura frowned. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't read his expression at all. He wasn't sure what was going on with that boy, but he was not going to let Ishtar trade with him tomorrow. He wanted to keep this one.

His eyes suddenly very tired, he turned to his side. Bringing Ryou closer to him he sighed. He had a feeling he was going to be able to sleep peacefully tonight.

* * *

YYY: Well, another short but effective chapter! Hope you enjoyed it. To tell the truth, this was a virtually useless chapter in terms of plot, but come on! I had to do it! Malik and Ryou needed at least one chapter they got to star in.

Jou: Yeah, but did you have to write me out completely? I feel so unloved!

Yugi: Oh relax. You had a nice little segment with Seto.

Jou: Easy for you to say! You got to plot and scheme and crumple paper! I want to crumple paper, you hear! I want to crumple paper!

YYY: Oh get over yourself! Here. (Gives him paper)

Jou: Yay! (Crumples it)


	12. Chapter Twelve

* * *

Yami Yami Yugi: Okay guys, here's the deal. Listen up because this is **_IMPORTAINT!_** I think I've said this before, but here it is in detail. The thing is I'm leaving for camp this Sunday.  
  
Yugi: That's right. Sleep away camp, to be exact.  
  
Jou: For four weeks in the middle of the woods.  
  
YYY: Which obviously means that I won't be able to update for four weeks. But it gets worse.  
  
Jou: After those four weeks she will only have one day before she has to go back.  
  
Yugi: This time it will be for three weeks to work there.  
  
YYY: Now while I'm away I will have my notebook with me and be writing down ideas. If I have enough time, I will be able to give you all a new chapter after I get back, or at least a preview of it.  
  
Yugi: If not, we'll see you in seven weeks. Man, that sounds like a long time.  
  
YYY: Yep, but at least you'll be there with me.  
  
Jou: Yeah, at least we'll be- Wait a minute! Did you just say...  
  
Yugi: No! You can't!  
  
YYY: Of course I can. You don't expect me to go away for four weeks and not bring my muses, do you? I'll die.  
  
Yugi: Yeah, and so will we.  
  
Jou: But we have good news!  
  
YYY: Let me guess. YOU just saved a bunch of money on your car insurance by switching to geico.  
  
Jou: (sweat-drop) No. We have a little **_CONTEST _**to keep you all busy while we're gone!  
  
YYY: Oh yeah!  
  
Yugi: Okay, so here's the deal. With the constant and drastic change of plot, 'Magic of Love' just doesn't fit anymore as a title.  
  
Jou: It fit while we wrote chapter five, but then it happened we went in a new direction. So basically, the title doesn't fit anymore.  
  
YYY: Now I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. I want you guys to submit suggestions for a title. There's enough info out there by now for someone to be able to come up with a suitable title. (Just not me)  
  
Yugi: So you do that, and we'll judge them when we come back.  
  
PRIZES  
  
Jou: Now we can't have a contest without prizes. The winner who can give us the best title can choose from the following:  
  
1) A role in 'Magic of Love.' You will get a pretty important part actually, but not a main, romantic, story sealing part. Just a little OC to put in there. If the winner does not choose this, I will make my own OC. Warning: I might kill you off. I'm still thinking about whether or not I will.  
  
2) You can get a supporting role in a one-shot of your choice and pairing. Warning: You will have to deal with my unique creativity with this. It may not turn out how you expect depending on what you give me.  
  
3) You can get a fan art from a story of your choice, whether it is from one of mine or yours if you write. You pick the story and what scene you want. Warning: I may have improved as an artist since I last posted on DevinantART, but I still, really can't draw. If you pick this, you are doing it at your own risk.  
  
YYY: Right, so that's it. I'll post the winner along with the next chapter. Feel free to send in as many submissions as you want! And now that we have finished with the two page long A/N with almost no jokes, let's go on to the reason you put up with me!  
  
Yugi: You mean blackmail?  
  
YYY: The story!  
  
Yugi: Oh! Right.

* * *

Disclaimer: Uhh...

* * *

Chapter Twelve  
  
It was a beautiful day, which was surprising considering the large amount of problems that had been taking place lately. It was very peaceful. The sun was bright, the birds were singing, and a constant breeze passed through the hot air. But not everyone was as cheerful as those singing birds.  
  
It's not that Yugi and Jounouchi were walking around in a doom and gloom mode, depressed and mad at the world. But they weren't exactly skipping along their merry way singing and laughing either. They were just, the perfect use of the word, fine.  
  
They had been allowed to wander around the palace on their own, as long as they remained together (which wouldn't be a problem) and didn't leave the palace.  
  
At the moment they were in one of the higher corridors that on one side had no wall, but a railing so you could see outside to the gardens and beyond the walls to the city. Jounouchi was leaning his back against the railing while Yugi instead rested his arms on it and looked at the view.  
  
"I guess this isn't so bad."  
  
Jounouchi looked at this friend. "What are you talking about? We're slaves Yugi! It doesn't get all that worse."  
  
"Yes, we are slaves, but think about it. Our masters know about what we can do, right?"  
  
"Right," he said, not seeing where he was going with this.  
  
"So, look at us. We're walking around the palace freely without anyone watching us, our powers are not being restrained... Do you see where I'm going with this?"  
  
Jounouchi started to answer before pausing and finally saying, "No."  
  
Yugi sighed. "Don't you see Jounouchi? They trust us. They trust that we aren't going to do anything; that we won't run away!"  
  
Jounouchi shook his head. "Yugi, I don't understand. Why are you suddenly defending them?"  
  
Yugi sighed and looked at him. "Jounouchi, I have to tell you something. This morning, after Yami left for a while, I saw something..."  
  
--- Flashback ---  
  
Yugi aimlessly walked around the large bedroom. Yami had left a few minutes ago, saying he'd be back in an hour. He tried to keep busy, but his eyes kept wandering back to that desk where Yami sat the previous night, and to the drawer with the chest.  
  
After staring at it and ultimately deciding that he felt stupid, he went over and pulled it open. Inside he saw the chest.  
  
It actually looked better from this distance, but still poorly carved. It was plain too. There were no decorations other than a lopsided eye of wisdom on the top.  
  
He opened it and gasped. Inside there was a large amount of scrolls, but that's not what he gasped for. Among the papers he found a thin golden band, almost identical to the one is old master used to restrain his powers. And he knew that this was meant to do just that.  
  
But then, why was in this chest and not on his ankle or something. Well, there was only one way to find out. He reached in, and pulled out one of the scrolls.  
  
Luckily, he was taught how to read, and could do it pretty well. Jounouchi probably would have been able to as well if he wasn't always falling asleep in lessons. He looked at the scroll and found it was the one Yami was writing the previous night.  
  
_--I couldn't do it. I saw him there and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. He was just lying there, sleeping. He wasn't doing anything wrong.  
  
We had all decided that we would put these magic bands on the two, just until we figured out something else. At least I know what it was that I took off him the other night. It makes sense now why he just out of nowhere got this strange aura.  
  
So Seto and I each got one and were supposed to put it on. But like I said, I couldn't do it. Yugi hasn't done anything wrong other than not tell me about his powers. As far as I can tell, he hasn't even used them. And I can't blame him for not saying anything. He was trying to avoid this whole mess.  
  
And I don't want to make this mess any worse by restraining him like some kind of animal. I think he trusts me, and I don't want to break that. I don't want to break his trust. And I don't want him to think I don't trust him, because I do. I trust him.--  
_  
--- End Flashback ---  
  
"He trusts me Jounouchi. I read it in his words. He does trust me. And I think Seto trusts you too or else you would have that bad around your ankle again."  
  
Jounouchi looked at him and sighed. "I know. I've known since this morning. He probably thought I was still asleep but I saw him with it, and he snapped it in half. But I didn't want to admit it. I was I afraid if I did, I would start to like him. And then I wouldn't want to leave."  
  
Yugi looked at him. "And, do you want to leave?"  
  
"No. I don't want to leave. But that's the problem. As much as I hate this place, I love it even more. But I think..." "What?"  
  
"I think that as I grow to love this place, I think I might be growing to love- to love..." Tears were starting to form in his eyes.  
  
"Jounouchi?"  
  
"I think... I love him, Yugi. I think I love him, and it scares me. It just sort of happened, and it scares me. I'm scared that I'm going to love him and he...he won't love me back. That I'm just a toy to him."  
  
He leaned back against the rail and sighed, whipping the tears from his eyes before they spilled.  
  
Yugi was about to say something but he was interrupted.  
  
"Yugi."  
  
The two of them looked up to see Yami walking towards them.  
  
"Yugi, come take a walk with me. I would like to speak with you." Yugi nodded. "Jounouchi, Seto is still in a meeting. You are free to continue to walk about the palace. He will find you later."  
  
Jounouchi nodded and bowed before leaving.  
  
Before he was too far away, Yugi sent a quick telepathic message to him.  
  
_**--It'll be okay--**_

* * *

Yami led Yugi out side into one of the gardens. The same ones he and Jounouchi had been looking at earlier  
  
It was a beautiful garden. Yugi had never seen such a large amount of flowers and trees in one place. It was amazing. He always did like flowers. They fascinated him. The different colors and shapes and sizes...  
  
Yami led him slowly across the garden, keeping one hand on his shoulder. He guided him to one part of the garden and stopped under the shade of a large tree. They stood there for a while before he started to speak.  
  
"Yugi, what do you think of this place?"  
  
"Huh?" He looked up at Yami, but he continued to look forward.  
  
"What do you think of this place? Do you like it here? Do you feel comfortable being in the palace and with me, or are you still afraid as you were the first time you came here?"  
  
"No, I'm not afraid. I like it here."  
  
"How much do you like it?" He asked, still not looking at him.  
  
"I- well- I mean- I don't know. I mean, it's nice here."  
  
"Yugi, what if I gave you the option not to be here."  
  
Yugi lifted his head but didn't turn around. Did he just...  
  
"What if I gave you the option to go? What if I told you that you could leave; that you didn't have to stay here?"  
  
His voice began to quiver. Yugi turned around to look at him, but Yami still didn't meet his gaze. He could see the tiniest tears starting to form in his eyes.  
  
"If I told you that you could go, would you? Would you take the option to leave? Would you go?"  
  
Yugi turned around to the flowers again. His heart was pounding. Was he telling him he could... go? Did he want to?  
  
"Would you go?"  
  
He felt Yami's hand shaking very slightly. Was he crying? His voice was quivering.  
  
Yugi didn't turn around, afraid of what he would see. Instead he just looked ahead.  
  
Would he go?  
  
"No."  
  
He said it quietly, almost in a whisper.  
  
"No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't go."  
  
For a moment nothing happened. They just stood there.  
  
Then he felt Yami's grip on his shoulder tighten. He turned around and looked at him. Yami was looking down at him, his face streaked from a single tear. And he was smiling. It was small, but it was there.  
  
And Yugi gave him a small smile back.  
  
Yami crouched down and embraced the younger boy who gladly returned it.

* * *

Jounouchi wandered aimlessly around halls. For such a big place, there wasn't very much to do. With all thoughts of his previous conversation with Yugi pushed to the back of his head, he realized that there wasn't much to do without him.  
  
He closed his eyes and kept on walking. That was a bad idea.  
  
CRASH!  
  
"Ow! Geez!" He looked up rubbing his head to see he had crashed into a little red-headed girl.  
  
"Ow." She said standing up. "Sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."  
  
"It's okay. I was the one walking around with my eyes closed."  
  
He grinned and she smiled back.  
  
"So what's your name?" the girl asked.  
  
"Jounouchi."  
  
"Well, nice to meet you Jounouchi. So where are you headed?"  
  
"Nowhere."  
  
"Really? Cool. Me too. Let's go together." She turned around and started walking down the hall. "By the way, I'm Serenity."  
  
Jounouchi stopped in mid step. _'Serenity?'_  
  
Turned around and looked at him. "Are you coming?"  
  
He looked at her. "Huh, what? Oh, yeah! Coming."  
  
They walked down a series of halls together. Serenity did most of the talking on the way, and Jounouchi just listened.  
  
"So you must be one of the new slave's, right? I haven't seen you around here before."  
  
"Yeah. I just got here a few days ago. You seem to know your way around. How long have you been here?"  
  
"Practically my whole life. When I was five I wandered out of my village and a group of traders found me. They sold me as a slave to the place, and the High Priestess took me. I've been here for almost six years."  
  
"Wow. That's horrible."  
  
"Not really. The palace is nice when you get used to it, and since I'm a servant now and to the High Priestess, I pretty much can do whatever I like up to a certain point."  
  
"That's not what I mean. I mean getting separated from your family."  
  
"Yeah. I really miss them. And all my friends too."  
  
"I know the feeling. My entire village was killed except for the children who were sold as slaves. It was on the Pharaoh's orders, too."  
  
"Impossible! How long ago was this?"  
  
"It was about four years ago."  
  
She sighed in relief. "Okay, now that makes sense. I knew Yami wouldn't do something like that."  
  
"Okay, maybe it makes sense to you, but I'm more confused than before."  
  
"Well, Yami became Pharaoh three years ago. His father was the one who ordered your village to be killed. Everyone knew him to be a crewel leader, and when Yami took the throne, most people believed him to be the same.  
  
"But the thing is, Yami's really nice. Unless you live in the palace or the city, you wouldn't know that because people, who haven't seen him, never had a chance to find out."  
  
"Wow. But how do you know all this?"  
  
"Well, whenever visitors come to the palace, they all had a negative feeling when they spoke about the Pharaoh, at least until they met him themselves. But everyone who lived nearby always spoke highly of him."  
  
"You know a lot, don't you?"  
  
"I know everything that happens around here. Like did you know that a pair of thieves were here last night?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Well, it's the truth. They took two of the Millennium items, the Eye and the Ring, and on the way out a pair of slaves as well. Yami was really mad. The Millennium Items I understand why, but he was also mad about the slaves. I don't know why. It was something about them having special powers..."  
  
"Powers! Oh no. Ryou and Malik..."  
  
Serenity gasped. "Did you just say Ryou and Malik?"  
  
"Yeah, why?"  
  
"I thought it was just a coincidence... But if they... That makes sense..."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Jounouchi, did you have a sister?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Did you have a sister?"  
  
"Yeah, but how did you..."  
  
"What was her name?"  
  
"It was Seren..." his eyes widened. "...ity..."  
  
"Jounouchi, it's me! Serenity!"

* * *

Seto walked down the corridor out of the meeting hall. He and Yami had a big issue with the rest of the consul about what to do about the runaway slaves. Honestly, just because they were older than the two of them, doesn't mean they are exactly intelligent.  
  
Seto and Yami knew that the other two had powers and had to get them back ASAP, but the consul said the Millennium Items were first priority and much more dangerous than any slave.  
  
Honestly! The slaves were immune to the power of the Millennium Items. Doesn't that put them slightly higher on the priority list?  
  
Anyway, about halfway into the meeting, Yami left. Honestly, Seto wished he had gone with him. But no, he had to stay and make sure the consul didn't make any stupid choices. Well, about an hour later they finally came to a compromise (although it did take a few attempts for Isis to calm Seto down and agree rather than send every soul there to the Shadow Realm.)  
  
He groaned. After taking a minute to think about it, it was a pretty good plan. The only problem was that it was going to take a little cooperation from two certain slaves. And he _-really-_ didn't want to have to sink as low as to ask slaves for help.  
  
Turning the corner he bumped into Yami. No, really. They bumped into each other and fell back onto the floor.  
  
"Nice one, Seto," Yami said standing up.  
  
"What are you talking about? You ran into me."  
  
"I did not! You came out of nowhere and purposely pushed me to the ground. Ow!"  
  
Seto had hit with the Millennium Rod over the head where a large bump was produced.  
  
"Quit acting childish."  
  
"Hey! That hurt you jerk. Ow!" Seto hit him again. Yami rubbed his head. "Why you little... Ow! Will you stop that!" He snatched away the Rod.  
  
"Hey! Give that back!" Seto lunged at him but Yami kept it just out of reach. "Why you shrimpy little... Give it!"  
  
"Now who's acting like a child?"  
  
"Why you..." He tackled Yami to the ground and sent them both into a dust cloud.  
  
Yugi, who avoided any painful collision, stood above them with a look on his face that clearly said, _'O-kay... they're weird.'_  
  
"Ahem."  
  
Yugi looked up to see the High Priestess with Jounouchi and another girl.  
  
"Boys..." The two on the dust cloud took no notice of her and continued in killing each other. Isis sighed and put two fingers to her mouth and let out a long, loud whistle.  
  
The boys froze to reveal Yami trying to bite Seto's head off while the other boy was in the middle of yanking his limbs off. They quickly got to their feet and straitened themselves out acting like none of it happened.  
  
"Right," Isis began. "Now that that's done with perhaps we should get down to more important matters. Let's move into a more private place before we explain things." She turned to the girl. "You may go back to our room for now. Everyone else, follow me."  
  
She turned and walked down the hall, Yugi and Jounouchi at her heels. Yami and Seto crossed their arms and glared at each other. They both stuck their tongues out at each other quickly before heading off behind Isis.

* * *

Bakura and Ishtar walked down one of the busy roads, their new slaves close behind them. They were out doing a little shopping.  
  
Well, their own twisted version of it anyway.  
  
"Hey," Bakura poked Ishtar and pointed at something on one of the stands. Ishtar looked out of the corner of his eye and nodded.  
  
The two of them went over to the stand, where a man was standing.  
  
"Can I help you two?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, in fact," Bakura started. "I wanted to know how much that scarf hanging there is."  
  
"This one?" The man tuned around to take one off the hanger.  
  
"Yes, that's the one."  
  
While Bakura kept the man busy, Ishtar slipped the two golden armbands from the table to the two slaves behind him.  
  
"Hide them," he said in a low whisper.  
  
Ryou and Malik took the armbands and looked at each other. They shrugged and hid them.  
  
"Oh dear," Bakura said. "It doesn't seem like I have enough money. No matter. Maybe some other time."  
  
The man nodded and turned to replace the scarf. Bakura spotted a small bag with his coins in it, and snatched it before walking away with Ishtar and the slaves.  
  
They made their way inconspicuously to the edge of the city near their house. Once safely outside it, Ishtar turned to Ryou and Malik.  
  
"Okay, hand them over."  
  
Malik looked at him innocently. "Hand what over?"  
  
"Don't play dumb. The armbands."  
  
Ryou played along. "I don't know what you're talking about? Do you, Malik?"  
  
He shook his head. "Not a clue."  
  
Bakura picked Ryou up by the shirt so he was eye level. "Just hand them over," he said in a low dark voice with a glare that would have sent a full grown man running away with wet pants by now.  
  
Ryou just smiled. "Oh! You mean these." He held them up for him to see.  
  
Bakura made to grab them, but Ryou moved them out of reach.  
  
"I don't think so. Catch Malik!"  
  
He tossed them to Malik who caught them with ease. He hid them behind his back as Ishtar came closer.  
  
"Give them to me," he said holding out his hand.  
  
"What are you talking about? I don't have anything," he said showing him an empty hand, the other one still behind his back.  
  
"Show me your other hand."  
  
Malik put his hand behind his back and then showed him the other one. Ishtar face palmed.  
  
"Show me both your hands!"  
  
Malik shrugged and did so. Both were empty.  
  
Ishtar looked at his hands, then his face, and his hands again. He tuned them over to see the back, then the front again. Nothing. He then picked him up off the ground and looked under him. Still nothing. He turned him upside down and shook him, before setting him down on his feet again, looking at him skeptically.  
  
"You don't have it."  
  
The other three sweat-dropped.  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't say that..." He showed him the armbands. Ishtar was about to snatch them when they just disappeared into the air.  
  
Ishtar looked from Malik's empty hands to Malik and back at the empty hands again. "How did you..."  
  
"Ahhhhhh!"  
  
They all tuned to the direction where the scream came from.  
  
"Yugi!"  
  
Ryou and Malik looked at each other before running off in that direction. Bakura and Ishtar, still wanting their armbands, followed.  
  
Moments later they stopped when they found the source of the shouts.  
  
Yugi had collapsed and was unconscious on the ground while Jounouchi was in front of him, trying to protect him. And in front of them were about five Koumori Dragons, shooting fire directly at them.  
  
Jounouchi was sending blasts of water to cancel them out, but he was tiring out. He suddenly fell to his knees, unable to keep fighting. The dragons prepared to fire one last big attack.  
  
Ryou and Malik moved to get their friends away, but were pulled back by the two thieves.  
  
"You won't make it! We'll get them."  
  
And that was all they said before running into the impending attack.  
  
The fireballs were already halfway there. Bakura and Ishtar sprinted in as fast as they could. The fire was only a few feet away. Bakura grabbed Yugi and Ishtar got Jounouchi. And as quickly as they ran in, they ran out, just seconds to spare.  
  
Bakura rolled onto the ground holding onto the slave he just saved. Now why he saved him, he had no idea. But that was a crisis for later. Right now he had another problem. The Koumori Dragons were still there and preparing to attack again.  
  
"Yugi!"  
  
"Jounouchi!"  
  
The dragons stopped upon hearing the voices of the Pharaoh and High Priest before flying away.  
  
Bakura looked over at Ishtar who shrugged._ -What was that all about?-_  
  
"Are they alright?" Ryou asked running over, Malik at his heels.  
  
"What on earth..."  
  
They all turned to see the Pharaoh and High Priest standing just feet away, the High Priestess running up behind them as well. They all had worried looks on their faces which were quickly changing into pissed on the first two.  
  
"You!" Yami pointed at Bakura and Ishtar. "You did this!"  
  
"What? No! We didn't do anything!"  
  
"Don't lie! Unhand them!"  
  
Bakura let go of the still unconscious Yugi and Ishtar did the same with Jounouchi. "Listen, I didn't do anything..."  
  
"Energy Bind!"  
  
Bakura and Ishtar, as well as Ryou and Malik who were right beside them, suddenly found themselves unable to move.  
  
"Stop!" A small redheaded girl ran out from behind a building.  
  
"Serenity?" Isis stepped forward.  
  
"Stop, please! They didn't do this to them! They _-saved-_ Yugi and my brother."  
  
"They... saved them?" Yami looked at Bakura who just shrugged.  
  
"Wait, your brother?" Seto looked at the little girl.  
  
She was about to answer when a groan was heard. Everyone looked down to see both Yugi and Jounouchi waking up.  
  
"Ow," Yugi said rubbing his head. "What hit me?"  
  
"Am I dead yet?" Jounouchi said trying to sit up, and failing miserably.  
  
Yami and Seto immediately rushed over to help the fallen boys.  
  
"Yugi, are you okay? Can you stand?"  
  
"Yeah, I think I... Ahh!" He clutched his stomach. He was pretty burnt up and bleeding.  
  
"Okay, come on," Yami gently picked Yugi into his arms, being careful not to hurt him even more.  
  
"What about you?" He looked down at Jounouchi who was being supported by his arm and sweat-dropped.  
  
Although he was in much better shape than Yugi (just a few scratches) he was obviously very weak as he was asleep, snoring and all.  
  
Seto sighed. "I guess I'm carrying him too. Let's go."  
  
Yami nodded looking down at Yugi once more. "Quickly."  
  
They two of them darted towards the palace, Isis and Serenity right behind them.  
  
And that left Bakura, Ishtar, Malik, and Ryou. Alone. Tied up. In the middle of nowhere.  
  
"Hey! What about us!"

* * *

Once Yugi and Jounouchi were fixed up, everyone had gathered in the most private and safe room in the palace: Yami's room.  
  
Everyone was seated on the various couches and chairs around the room. Bakura, Ishtar, Ryou, and Malik sat together under the very uncomfortable yet watchful eye of both the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl.  
  
Yugi and Jounouchi were both still unconscious, but their lives weren't threatened. Still, both Yami and Seto kept their own respective slaves protectively in their arms while listening to Serenity speak.  
  
She was, after all, the only other conscious person who knew the whole story.  
  
"So I was following behind them just because I knew my brother would land himself into some kind of trouble. Well, they followed the plan, but couldn't find any sign of these four." She pointed to Bakura and the others.  
  
"Well, they were near the edge of town when these five Koumori Dragons attacked out of nowhere. They started shooting fireballs at them and, well it happened so fast... One of them was headed strait for Jounouchi and Yugi pushed him out of the way. He was almost able to get away himself, but the fireball hit him."  
  
Yami's grip on Yugi tightened.  
  
"It wasn't a direct hit, it just grazed him, but it was enough to knock him out.  
  
"Now that left Jounouchi. He right away got up and started to fight off the fire with blasts of water. But his strength was limited and he collapsed as well.  
  
"I started to run over to try and help, but I was too far away. I wouldn't have made it. That's when those two," she pointed to Bakura and Ishtar, "came out of nowhere and got them out of there.  
  
"The dragons were about to attack again but then you came into the picture. They heard you shouting and flew away. And you know everything from there."  
  
"So you don't know why they attacked?" She shook her head. Yami sighed. "Alright, you still helped us fill in most of the blanks."  
  
He turned to Bakura and Ishtar. "I guess I'm in dept to you for saving their lives. So I'm going to let you go, but the Millennium Items and slaves stay here."  
  
Bakura glared but handed over his item, grumbling very loudly. Ishtar did the same.  
  
But then he looked over at Ryou. To tell the truth, he had become slightly attached to the mischievous little boy. He looked over to Ishtar. He seemed reluctant to give his up as well.  
  
Yami noticed this and gave out a long, loud, annoyed sigh. "Fine! You can stay here with them! I really don't care!"  
  
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a massive headache. This was so frustrating! His whole body hurt from the stress of the day and he wanted nothing more than to relax and go to sleep. It was too much! [1]  
  
"Okay, Isis give them a room or something with guards. Everyone, you can leave now. I'll take care of this mess in the morning."  
  
Once everyone was out he leaned back on the couch, Yugi still in his arms. What he wouldn't have given to be able to let out one good scream. But he didn't want to wake the sleeping boy. So he kept it inside. His pent up frustration would have to wait until Yugi was better.

* * *

He was tired. No, he was exhausted. He wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. So why the hell couldn't he?!  
  
Yami let out what must have been his millionth sigh that night. He was sitting up in his bed against the headboard with Yugi cradled in his arms. He just couldn't bring himself to let him go, or stop looking at him.  
  
He ran a finger across the bandages that covered his abdomen. He was worried. He knew those weren't just some random dragons that happened to attack them.  
  
No. Someone was after Yugi and Jounouchi. And they almost had them today. Yugi was badly hurt and although he didn't show it, he panicked when he saw him burnt and covered in blood. It scared him.  
  
It scared him more than anything in his entire life.  
  
His arms tightened around the boy bringing him up to give him as oft kiss on the lips.  
  
He sighed again. When he first saw Yugi he felt something. And over the past few days that feeling had gotten stronger. At first he wasn't sure what it was that he felt. At one point he even thought it to be indigestion!  
  
Boy was he wrong. And it wasn't until that day in the garden, when Yugi said that he wouldn't leave him, he knew what it was. He knew then what he felt for him.  
  
He knew then, that he loved him  
  
He suddenly heard a sound and jumped slightly. But when he saw the wall being pushed open he relaxed.  
  
"Couldn't sleep Seto?"  
  
Seto grinned and stepped out of the secret passage that connected their rooms. They used to use it a lot when they were younger, but hadn't found a use for it lately.  
  
"No. Can we stay here tonight?"  
  
"We?"  
  
Seto held up the slave that was sleeping in his arms.  
  
"Oh. Yeah, sure. I couldn't sleep either."  
  
Seto closed the passage and crawled onto Yami's bed, all the time not letting go of Jounouchi.  
  
When they were younger Seto and Yami would constantly sneak into each other's rooms at night so they could be with each other. The two were absolutely inseparable back then, and still were.  
  
Yami watched as Seto sat against the headboard as he was, his hand running through his slaves hair.  
  
"What do you feel for him?" Yami asked in a whisper.  
  
Seto shrugged twisting one of the golden locks around his finger.  
  
"I don't know. It's a strange feeling. Sort of like what I feel for Mokuba, but not exactly. It feels different," he said then frowned, with a look on his face. "And kind of like indigestion."  
  
Yami grinned and shook his head.  
  
"What's so funny?"  
  
Yami shook his head. "Nothing. You'll understand eventually."

* * *

Yami Yam Yugi: Dear lord in heaven above. You can't see me but I am close to tears right now. And no, I'm not happy or sad or anything. Let's put it this way:  
  
[1] This is how I feel right now divided by ten. Meaning I feel ten times worse.  
  
Yugi: Why, you ask? Well, she has been slaving, and I mean _–slaving-_ over this chapter for the past week.  
  
Jou: It was the first week of summer vacation and she has been getting up at seven everyday and writing till about three or four in the afternoon.  
  
YYY: I am tired and frustrated and I've wanted nothing more than to be able to relax and chill this week, but I didn't because I wanted to make sure you guys would get a good long chapter with no cliffhangers. i could have ended it at any time and left you hanging, but instead spilled everything I had into it so you would be content while I was away for four weeks.  
  
Yugi: We gave up our first week of summer to you guys and ask for one thing in return.  
  
Jou: Review. Not a "Nice job! Keep going!" kind of review. We would really like just for this one chapter nice, long, intelligent reviews to come back to. As is more than four words.  
  
YYY: I want to know that the work I did this week was appreciated. So please, write something so I can feel proud about having done this for you.  
  
Yugi: And don't forget to submit titles for this fic. We'll pick a winner when we get back.  
  
Jou: And now, it is 10:30 P.M. and YYY desperately wants to sleep, but we have to catch our last episode of Inuyasha before camp. Seven Weeks...  
  
YYY: Sorry if we sound kind of b!tchy right now, but ti's been a long day. Really, We're trying to be nice.

So I hope you enjoyed this **_18 page chapter_**, send me good reviews, submit titles, and HAVE A NICE SUMMER!!! Remember, I love you all and wish me luck!  
  
**_From Me and My Muses: WE LOVE YOU!!!_**


	13. Chapter Thirteen

A/n: Hey guys. I just wanted to give you all a quick note before you move on. As you will probably be able to figure out from the following Author's note, I started writing the second I came in contact with the computer. But some things have happened (that I would rather not share) that made me stop writing for a while, in spite of all the wonderful reviews you gave me. I have a good reason for not updating in so long, but I would really prefer to keep it to myself.

Thank you all for being so patient with me.

* * *

Yami Yami Yugi: Yes! (Jumps around like a mad woman) Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm back. You're back. The fic is back. And I am happily swimming in nice long reviews! And I have ice cream! (munches) (happy sigh) Life is gooooooood!

Yugi: (Jumps around is a similar fashion to YYY) No more swimming! No more canoeing! No more tents! No more camp food! (digs into real food) Yum! Ramen. World's best breakfast, lunch and dinner! Life is goooooooood! (hops onto couch next to YYY)

Jou: (only one that looks depressed) Why do I have to drag in the luggage? Stupid mosquito bites. Life is so unfaaaaaaair! (sulks)

YYY: (Looking up from potato chips and PS2 games.) You say something Jou?

Jou: (sigh) No.

YYY: Goodie! Well I am in an unbreakable happy mood and ready for action! Who's ready for a fic?

(all hands go up)

YYY: Thought so. I worked hard all summer. It's amazing how fast these ideas come to you in the middle of the woods.

Yugi: Yeah! We had to write home for a second notebook after the first week!

Jou: But don't expect to get it all at once. It still needs work, and besides, it's fun to leave readers sweating a little at a cliffhanger.

YYY: But anyway, after an awesome summer, I'm back to give you guys and awesome chapter. Right after a quick reviewer response:

* * *

Amonae: Thank you very much for your review and title submissions. I'm glad you like. And you were the only review I was able to see before I had to be shipped off to camp so you made me all happy like!

lookingatglass: Thank you. And we'll be seeing much more for those four. Trust me.

Yana5: Already with the questions! (grin) Patience people. Patience

Cherry-Wolf: Again with the unanswerable questions! (giggle) You're just going to have to wait. I swear there are answers to everything eventually. Anyway, thanks for the review and title subs. I just love helpful people!

SoulDeramer: Hope your summer was as good as mine! Thanks for the title.

White Phoenix Eternal: Thanks a bunch. Sorry I took so long to get back, but hopefully those mangas kept you busy.

S. Chensu and Luff: Whoa! Slow down tiger! I asked for a review for my story not a term paper on it! lol (grin) not that I didn't like it. Oh boy, here we go with the response.

First of all no crying! If you cry then I'll cry then Yugi will cry and nobody likes to see Yugi cry so everyone else will cry and that's not good! (gasp) Said that in one breath. Not good.

(sigh) So many questions. So few answers. I just can't say anything. You don't want the other reviewers to think I favor you now do you? You'll find out eventually. Maybe. Or maybe I'll just never answer anything so it'll haunt you in your sleep. (evil laugh)

But anyway, thank you so much. I'm really glad (and just a little freaked) that you like my story so much. You're not by any chance going to turn out to be one of those scary stalker types are you… (nervous laugh)

And thanks for your title subs too. And don't worry, more of that fluffy ness you like so much coming up!

Merodi no Yami: Yeah, so I stole your contest idea. It was a good idea. (wink) But by all means give me all the tips you've want. My beta reader went AWOL on me in June. I'm giving her till September. If she's not back by then I getting a new one. And I would very much like to have you as my beta but, uhh… hehe (sigh) (sweatdrop) There's sort of a waiting list. (sigh) Pathetic, no?

ANYWAY (grin) still with the questions. All these reviewers just have so many questions. Well at least I can answer yours.

#1 Yeah, I guess I should have been more specific. They can hide and call anything that's not to big (ex. Deck, armbands…)

#2 Yes it is actually important but I can't say too much. Just sit tight and wait for that one. It'll actually play a bigger role than you may think.

#3 Oops. Damn, I knew I was forgetting something. I had it in my mind; I just forgot to write it down. Look for the answer in this chapter. It'll be there this time.

Thanks for the title subs. You rule!

* * *

YYY: Well, that looks like everything important. I guess we'll just more onto the fic…

Yugi and Jou: WAIT!

YYY: Huh? What?

Yugi: Aren't you forgetting something?

YYY: Uhh…

Jou: Something important?

YYY: …

Yugi: (sigh) That you mentioned in almost every review response.

YYY: (thinking hard) nope. Can't think of a thing.

Jou: (sigh) (slaps her over the head) The contest you dolt!

YYY: Contest? Oh yeah! That's right. We have a winner!

(lights flash and funky music plays and confetti and balloons fly)

YYY: First of all I just want to thank everyone again for all the help. All of you ideas rocked. But I can only have one title. And honestly when I saw this one I slapped myself and was like "duh! Why didn't I think of that!" I mean, that was the whole point of the story from the beginning.

Yugi and Jou: Just tell us who it is already!

YYY: Right. The winner is… MERODI NO YAMI for her title CHOOSEN FOUR!!!

(the whole party deal with the lights and music starts again)

YYY: Congratulations! You get to choose from the following for your prize:

1) A role in 'Magic of Love.' You will get a pretty important part actually, but not a main, romantic, story sealing part. Just a little OC to put in there. If the winner does not choose this, I will make my own OC. Warning: I might kill you off. I'm still thinking about whether or not I will.

2) You can get a supporting role in a one-shot of your choice and pairing. Warning: You will have to deal with my unique creativity with this. It may not turn out how you expect depending on what you give me.

3) You can get a fan art from a story of your choice, whether it is from one of mine or yours if you write. You pick the story and what scene you want. Warning: I may have improved as an artist since I last posted on DevinantART, but I still, really can't draw. If you pick this, you are doing it at your own risk.

As for everyone else, thanks again. And MnY I wait for your choice. Just email or review it to me.

And now on with the fic!

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

Bakura woke up early the next morning just before the sun rose. He silently slipped out of bed, being careful not to wake the other three sleeping boys. He took a quick scan of the room. It was very small and plain, with just a few pieces of furniture. There were two windows for light and air to get in, but they were very high up, and too small for him to fit through.

So much for an escape plan. Not that he was planning on going anywhere anytime soon (he snuck a quick glance at Ryou) he just figured I would we good to have a plan incase he had to make a quick getaway.

Finally deciding that he was board and nothing to do, he decided to take a peak at the rest of the palace.

Bakura opened the door a crack and looked out. He smirked and opened it all the way and stepped over the sleeping guards. The Pharaoh seriously needed to get better help. First two thieves get in, he lets them take the Millennium Items, and now the guards that are supposed to be watching them are asleep. Absolutely pathetic!

Oh well. It wasn't his problem. Besides, he wasn't doing anything wrong.

…

Well, not yet anyway.

He wandered down the hall taking in his surroundings. He had to admit the place was pretty well done. Then again it was the palace. Anything less than expensive furniture, elaborate decorating, and gold around every corner, and Bakura would have doubted where he was. The whole place was done up. Even the slaves, he noticed as a few scurried down the hall getting the palace ready for the day. Their clothes were decent but most of all, Bakura noticed, they were clean. And healthy. And fed.

They were probably better off than some of the people in the city (and not just the horribly poor ones either.) And these were just the slaves! He could only imagine how othe- Ow!

A door.

Bakura, in all his intelligent smartness, forgot to look where he was going and hit a door.

The glared at the offending door before he realized that he was giving a scary look to an intimate object that wasn't going to run away screaming therefore it was useless not to mention stupid so he stopped.

Being a thief, Bakura was able to spot good thieving opportunities, usually by noticing how precious or shiny it was. So naturally the fact that the door was both caught his attention. It was a big door made of some sort of black substance he didn't recognize. There were hieroglyphics carved onto it along with the Millennium Ring in the center.

He reached out his hand and ran it across the carving. It felt smooth, like marble but softer and… IT WAS GLOWING?!

Quickly he retracted his hand but it was just a tad too late. The black hunk of rock was now glowing green. And then it stopped. Everything was normal. The door was open but other than that everything looked untouched.

"What the bloody hell did you do?"

Bakura whirled around. Standing barely three feet away from him was the Pharaoh. Plastered on his face was a mixed expression of anger, shock and awe. Bakura wasn't sure what to make of this, but something told him he was in trouble.

* * *

Yugi's eyes blinked open, the first thing on his mind somewhere along the lines of "Where am I?" He shot up looking around. He was in Yami's room. Now how he got there and why Jounouchi was sleeping next to him he didn't know, but one question to be answered at a time. Let's start with why he was in bandages.

"DAMNIT!"

Okay, or he could start with why Yami was storming into the room looking (and sounding) really pissed.

Jounouchi sat up next to him looking half asleep. He blinked a few times and looked around. "What's going on?" he asked.

Yugi shrugged as Seto ran in after Yami.

"Yami, wait! What's going on? You just took off with the thief to Ra knows where and the next thing anybody knows, you're having one of your episodes."

"I'M ALLOWED TO HAVE ANY KIND OF EPISODE I WANT! I'M PHARAOH, AREN'T I?"

Seto put up his hands and took a small step back. The Pharaoh was absolutely fuming and that wasn't generally a good thing for the leader of a country.

"Just calm down, Yami," he said. He gently reached out his hand to place on his friend's shoulder.

"No Seto, I can't calm down!" he said pushing away his arm. "We have a problem!"

"PHARAOH!"

Seto sighed. 'Great,' he thought. 'More good news.'

Yami took a few deep breaths and managed to regain his composure. "Okay, we can handle this," he said, his voice now much calmer. "Seto, I want you to find our rampaging -guest- and take him into the meeting hall. Then we need to call a meeting of the council; everyone must come. Make sure that everyone who was involved in yesterday's incident is there as well. I'll take care of these two," he jerked his thumb at the two slaves in the bed, "and meet you there in half an hour. That should be enough to get everyone rounded up."

He nodded and left the room to find Bakura, closing the door behind him.

The Pharaoh sighed and turned his attention to the other two boys who looked like they didn't have a clue as to what was happening. And considering they were unconscious for most of the experience, it was entirely possible.

"Do you two feel okay? Are you alright to walk?"

"Uhh…" Yugi glanced at Jounouchi. :: What's he talking about? :: He asked telepathically. Jounouchi shrugged. "We're fine," he said.

"Are you sure? You were hurt pretty badly yesterday." His words were full of concern.

"Really, see?" Yugi climbed out of bed and walked around the room. He even did a cartwheel to prove his point. "I've never felt better!" he said with a grin.

"Are you crazy? You shouldn't be doing that with your injuries!"

He started to rush over to help him when he was met with words he didn't expect. "What injuries?" He stopped and looked at the boy curiously. He was standing there with a confused look on his face. There was nothing to indicate that he was hurt at all. In fact, he looked entirely healthy.

Slowly, he began to approach him and then cautiously removed one of the bandages. Nothing. There was nothing under them but perfect, uncut skin. No blood, bruises, or even a scar. Curiosity growing, Yami took off the rest of the bandages. The same, unmarked skin met him every time. It was as if he was never hurt at all!

"I don't understand," he murmured.

"Is something wrong?" Yugi asked quietly, not sure what was going on.

"Yes," he said in a low whisper, more to himself than to Yugi. "Yes, something is very wrong. Jounouchi!" he said loudly. The blonde jumped upon hearing his name. "What about you? Are you hurt at all?"

Jounouchi shook his head and removed his own bandages to show him. It was the same thing; there wasn't a mark on him.

"Okay you two, get dressed. We're leaving."

"Where are we going, Yami?" Yugi asked.

The older boy turned around and looked at him. "To get some answers."

* * *

The meeting hall was a big rectangular stone room. In the center was a large golden table were the council sat. At the head of the table was where Yami sat. Directly to his right was Seto and to his left, Isis. On Seto's right was Mokuba, then Bakura, and three other older men. On Isis's left was a man named Shadi, then Ishtar, and again another three men. Sitting clustered together on the opposite end of the table were Yugi, Jounouchi, Malik, Ryou, and Serenity.

The six older men were the council members when Yami's father had the throne. They used to be the holders of the items, but when the new pharaoh took the throne they had to give them up. They were, however, required to remain as part of the council until every Millennium Item had a holder again. Nobody liked this because they had their outdated ideas on how to run the country, so there were always disagreements with the younger ones.

But it seemed that this problem was going to be resolved soon enough.

Yami clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them. He quickly scanned the people before him and stated talking.

"As we all know, some better than others," he mumble to himself, "We have had a few problems in the palace over the last few days. Now before we get to the point of this meeting, it is important that everyone knows all the details of what happened. So, let's recap." He looked over to Seto who nodded and stood up.

"Most of us know all this already. My slave displayed some very interesting powers for us a few days ago. We have reason to believe that the rest of his friends have similar powers, but nothing specific about them is known." He took a quick look at the four boys who just sat there listening. It looked like they were okay with this (not that they had a choice.)

"Now what we know about my slave's powers are that he can transfigure things, produce water, and has a deck. All four of them are immune to the powers of the Millennium Items, so they are powerful."

One of the older men stood up. "So they're powerful, and probably dangerous. I say we just kill them now and problem solved."

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" came the shout from the four masters who were now all standing and mad.

"Alright, alright," said Isis. "Everybody sit down and listen to the full story before we come to any solutions." The five men slowly sat back down in their seats.

"Now, our second problem is these two," she motioned to Bakura and Ishtar. "They are the two thieves that broke into the palace and stole the Millennium items and two of the slaves. Now this was obviously a problem so we devised a plan to get them back. It was simple but was going to require some cooperation from our two remaining slaves.

"What we had in mind was really based of a hunch. Luckily we were right or else we would have ended up with plan B: turn the town upside down until we found them. So anyway, since Jounouchi here," she pointed to the blonde boy, "was able to transform things, we figured he might be able to make for us two fake Millennium Items, and replicate their energy signal. He was able to, and although the signal was slightly different than the real thing, it was enough to fool someone if it wasn't put into comparison with the real thing. That meant that when they went out, they couldn't be with Yami, Seto, and I or else it would have been obvious they were fakes and we were trying to trick them into following us.

"And that was exactly what we were trying to do. We split up into two groups to search opposites of the city. The first step was to locate them. That part was just simple looking around. If our group found them we were obviously just going to deal with them ourselves. If the other two found them, they were supposed to draw their attention to the fake items and lead them back to a group of guards waiting for them. Then a few questions later we would have the items and slaves back in our possession.

"It definitely would have been a lot easier to be strait forward with sending out guards and finding those two, but then there would have been a greater chance that they could get away if they saw us coming, and that would have been a problem.

"But obviously it didn't work out like that anyway. However, I think Serenity would be able to explain this part better."

The meeting continued and the events of that day were explained from three different sides: Serenity's, Yugi and Jounouchi's, and Bakura and Ishtar's. It wasn't until Yami started to tell about the events of that morning that things got interesting.

"I was going to check on Bakura and the others, but when I looked into their room, he wasn't there. So naturally, I went looking for him. When I did find him he was on the top floor in the abandoned corridor. And the door to the Bearer of the Ring was open. As we all know, only the true holder of a Millennium item can open the corresponding doors. So I kept my cool and led him to the Item room…"

"Yeah right! You went mental and dragged me down fifteen different hallways! Fifteen! Then you shoved the Ring over my neck and when it wouldn't come off you fainted. Then in came the High Priest, thinks I killed you and goes after my blood! And then…" He was stopped by Yami's hand over his mouth.

"The point is," he said through clenched teeth. "I would like you to meet… our sixth priest, Bakura."

* * *

After the Pharaoh's shocking announcement, the room went into shock. That is, for the first few seconds. After that there was total pandemonium. Every Priest was yelling, demanding an explanation. For a while there was nothing but shouting until Yami let out a burst of light from the Puzzle and had everyone calm down. He spoke to them patiently, telling them that there was nothing he could do. Bakura was chosen and that was that.

Eventually everyone clamed down and they moved on to the next topic, not that anyone was happy about it.

"Next," he said, "we have even more good news." He turned his attention to Ishtar. "You, you're his apprentice, aren't you?"

Ishtar gulped. "How'd you know that."

"You're always hanging around in the back and watching while Bakura takes charge. Not only that but you just seem like a mediocre thief. ("Hey!") Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that you are basically his student, right?" Ishtar nodded. "I thought so. Seto, may I have the Millennium Eye."

Seto's eyes widened. "Yami, surely you aren't suggesting…"

"Seto," he said quietly. "The Eye."

He let out a long breath and handed it over. Yami instructed Ishtar to take it, and when he did, a bright light filled the room, blinding its occupants. A moment later it died down, revealing a very confused thief.

"So it's true," Yami muttered under his breath before speaking out loud. "Our seventh and final Priest, Ishtar. And so the former priests are officially relived from their duties. You may leave."

"But my Pharaoh-"

"I said, leave."

The former priest stood up and filed out of the room. When the last one had gone the doors closed leaving the new officials of Egypt: Keeper of the Puzzle- Yami, Keeper of the Rod- Seto, Keeper of the Ring- Bakura, Keeper of the Eye- Ishtar, Keeper of the Necklace- Isis, Keeper of the Scales- Shadi, and Keeper of the Key- Mokuba.

* * *

YYY: And that's the end if the four month long chapter. Like I said before, I'm really sorry about taking so long, but it's a really personal matter and I hope you will understand if I don't share it.

Yugi: Yeah. And thank you for all the wonderful reviews. We really do appreciate them.

Jou: Next chapter will be the second half of the meeting. Expect it out around New Years, if not sooner.

All: Until then

_**Happy Holidays from Yami Yami Yugi and co.**_


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Yami Yami Yugi: I'm so sorry! I'm a horrible horrible author and you guys are wonderful wonderful reviewers. (sob) I don't deserve you! I go off and ditch a story and here you guys are waiting patiently and… Wah! I'm sorry!

Yugi: (backs away slowly) But anyway, we're keeping the same title for a bit longer until we are rediscovered again. So maybe another chapter or two until we officially change the name

Jou: And we are also getting back into the short authors notes after the three page ones we've had in the past.

YYY: (Calm again) So without any more distractions, here is the next chapter of Magic of Love a.k.a. Chosen Four!

* * *

Disclaimer: The creator and former legal owner of Yu-Gi-Oh died in a freak schnauzer incident last night and in his last will and testament left me as the owner of his creation. Then I woke up and realized that he was not attacked by a dog and I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. (BUT THAT DOESN"T MEAN I'm NOT TRYING!)

* * *

Chapter Fourteen

"Now that we have all of the item holders assembled," Yami said a few moments later, "It's time that we fill everyone in on what that means." He took a quick look at everyone seated at the table before continuing. "Seto, Isis, and I have been brought up with this information, and we were meant to pass it on to all of you once we had all seven assembled."

He nodded at Seto who took over.

"The first order of business is the simplest, sort of. You see, the top floor of the palace has seven rooms that are said to have been created by the gods themselves. Each of them was, obviously, made for each of the holders of the Millennium Items. The rooms were each fitted with enchanted doors that would only open for the owner of that specific item or for the owner of the Puzzle, as it has power over all the others. Whenever a new generation of priests began, the doors would no longer open to the former owners, but instead remain locked until the next owner of that item came around.

"What makes this so important is that, from what we understand about our current priests, this time the holders of the Millennium items match the description in the prophecy."

At this, Yugi's ears suddenly perked up. _'Prophecy?'_

"Prophecy?" Bakura asked out loud.

Seto looked at Isis who nodded and put her hands up to either side of her Millennium Necklace. It glowed and she began to recite in a distant voice:

_**"Within the great kingdom**_

_**A great evil shall arise**_

_**Its target: the seven**_

_**The King, the Priestess, the Priest, the Child,**_

_**The Foreigner, the Thief, the Student.**_

_**Powers unmatched**_

_**It will use all means to destroy them**_

_**Even the power of the gods.**_

_**War will wage**_

_**Tides will turn**_

_**A once peaceful land thrown into chaos.**_

_**Families torn**_

_**Friendships betrayed**_

_**Lovers forgotten**_

_**And the ultimate sacrifice will be made**_

_**The day of destruction is near."**_

The Necklace stopped glowing and Isis opened her eyes.

"Each of those seven doors is inscribed with the exact same prophecy. If you were paying attention, you would be able to figure out that the King is obviously Yami, Seto is the Priest, I'm the Priestess, Mokuba is the child, Shadi is the foreigner, Bakura is the thief, and Ishtar would be the student."

"And you've never had a group of priests that matched the prophecy," Bakura asked, "which by the way sounds like the world is doomed to destruction."

"No, we haven't," Yami said. "And although it might seem a bit on the doom and gloom side, it's a message that has been given to us by the gods. And now that we have assembled the seven priests in the prophecy, there is no doubt that it will soon come to pass."

"So, you're saying that we really are doomed then?" Ishtar asked, looking annoyed.

"Not necessarily," a new voice piped up. Everyone turned to the young raven haired boy who was now rearranging himself to a standing position on his chair so that everyone could see him. "You see, this was given to us as not as much of a message, but as more of a warning. The point is to know what is going to happen, and then stop it. The problem is that this has been in the hands of the royals for generations, but the priests always put it off, saying to worry about it when it happened. But now it is happening and we are the ones that have to stop it, with no clues as to where to begin."

"Exactly! Thank you Mokuba." Mokuba grinned and returned to sitting on his chair rather than standing on it.

The meeting went on and they discussed, well, okay they argued with Bakura and Ishtar about the things they could and couldn't do. If anything, it was a great display of how far they could push each other before someone lunged over the table intent on strangling the other.

There was one subject Ishtar refused to budge on, though. He was not putting the Millennium eye in his eye socket. There was no reasoning with him. So they were just going to have to make due with hanging it on a chain like some of the others. (How they got it on a chain, however, is a whole other story.)

Eventually they made it into the topic everyone was most interested in: the four slaves.

"So we still have not come to a conclusion," Yami said, "about what to do with you four." Everyone turned to the four slaves who, up until now, had been sitting quietly in the background. He continued, "But before we come to conclusion for you, I would like to know a little more about what we're dealing with."

Everyone looked expectantly at the four boys, who each had the same uncertain looks on their faces. Yami, seeing this, sighed. "I know we've been through all this before, but you have to understand. Someone is after you four. We need to know why or we won't be able to help you. So_ please_, tell us what we need to know."

He wasn't demanding or even really asking them. He was borderline begging them to tell their story. It wasn't something that was easy for a Pharaoh to do, beg a slave for something, especially in front of other people. But he was, and it was genuinely because he wanted to help. Yugi must have seen this because he stood up and started to talk, although somewhat hesitantly.

"Okay, we each have our own special powers. You know this much already. We've had them pretty much all our lives. We all have decks and we all have powers that correspond to a specific element." He stopped there and glanced at his friends, requesting backup. They nodded and he continued.

"I control the element of earth and that gives me the power to control anything like plants and things, I'm telepathic and telekinetic."

Jounouchi stood up. "I control the element of water so I can create and manipulate water, and I can transfigure and teleport things."

Malik stood up next. "I control the element of fire so I can create and manipulate flames, and I can turn invisible and shape-shift."

Finally Ryou stood. "I control the element of wind and that lets me control the air currents around me, and I can also control and alter minds and memories and have healing powers."

Yami nodded. "You said you have healing powers. What about the rest of you? Can you heal yourselves if you're badly injured, or not?" They shook their heads.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "So that still doesn't explain why Yugi and Jounouchi were uninjured this morning," he mumbled, more to himself than anything.

"Umm… actually…" He looked up at Ryou. "I sort of… snuckintoyourroomlastnightandhealedthemandranawaybeforeanyonenoticed," he said quickly.

Yugi looked at Ryou. _**:Since when can you…:**_

_**:Last night Bakura and Ishtar removed our seals:**_

"So it was you?" Yami asked.

"Yes."

He nodded. _'Thank you,'_ he thought to himself, not knowing that Yugi was listening in.

_**:He says "thanks":**_ he told Ryou telepathically, who smiled.

"Is there anything else?"

While the others looked like they were unsure about something, Yugi immediately shook his head. "No, there isn't anything else."

* * *

With the meeting over, everyone returned to their own respective rooms, with more questions swimming through their heads than before. Most of their thoughts included some version of "Why are two thieves chosen to be Item Holders?" "Who is after those four Slaves?" "Egypt is doomed if these nut jobs are the ones running it!" and in Ishtar and Bakura's case, "Damn! This is my room?"

Bakura walked into his room in awe. Everything was pretty much made with that weird black stone and emeralds. This room was covered with black and green and was probably one of the richest places in the palace. There were dressers and couches and this huge bed and a bathing area and a balcony…

And Bakura was running around looking at everything like an excited kid. Ishtar was doing the same in his room (although everything was brown and yellow and made of a brownish stone and topaz.) He ran out to the balcony and leaned over. They were so high up and the view was amazing. The people down there looked like ants.

"Hi Ishtar!" came a voice. He looked to his right and a distance away Bakura was waving to his from his balcony.

"Hey Bakura!" He shouted back at him, leaning over the railing slightly, as if being two inches closer would let him hear better.

But at that moment they were both simultaneously pulled back by the back of the robes by their slaves who had annoyed looks on their faces. Although they couldn't see each other, Malik and Ryou both had the look of an exasperated mother and sounded like one as they both said, "Don't lean over the edge. You could fall over and die."

Bakura released himself from his grip and looked down at his slave. "Who are you to order me around? I'm your master now and I give the orders. I'm one of the Pharaoh's priests, I have super cool magic powers, and most of all: I'm bigger than you."

Ryou smiled and turned around, waving him off. "Okay, you keep telling yourself that."

"What was that? Hey, you listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

"I'm listening," he said turning around. Everything about his exterior said he was being completely obedient and docile, just like a slave was supposed to be. Even his voice wasn't defiant anymore. But there was just something… His eyes had this weird spark in them that said he was just playing with him. Bakura growled.

"Stop that!" Ryou blinked up at him and Bakura moved in closer. That look was still there. It was like he was laughing at him. Daring him to prove himself. "I said stop it!" He had him backed against the wall now.

"But I'm not…"

"Shut up!"

Ryou started to say something but was silenced by Bakura's lips over his. His eyes widened but slowly closed as the kiss became deeper. He didn't have any clue of what just happened, but it was kind of nice.

* * *

Meanwhile, Malik and Ishtar were having a similar encounter.

"I hate you!"

"I hate you more!"

Well, sort of.

Ishtar was also faced with a strange defiance from Malik, but rather than silencing him with a kiss, he choose to tackle his slave to the ground. Now they were in a little wrestling match that neither of them was giving up.

"What is your problem?" Malik yelled at him, pinning him to the ground.

"You! What else?" Ishtar shouted back, flipping him over so he was on top.

"Oh yeah, well," he kicked him off. "I don't think I did anything."

"Well, I beg to differ!" he tackled him back onto the ground and pinned his wrists.

"Well I don't care if you are my master! You can go drown yourself in the Nile for all I care!" He twisted himself out of his grasp and rolled out from under him.

"Oh yeah, well you can just go jump off a building for all I care!"

Malik paused for a moment and glared at him. "Fine then, I will."

He stood up and walked to the balcony.

"What are you doing?" Ishtar asked skepticly.

Without a word he swung his legs over the railing and jumped.

"Hey!" Ishtar scrambled to his feet and ran to the balcony.

He jumped? Why the hell did he do that? He looked over the edge. It was a pretty long way down. He stared down, eyes wide. There's no way he could have survived that…

"Hi," came a cheerful voice from behind him.

He whirled around to see Malik standing in front of him, looking like absolutely nothing had happened. Ishtar blinked stupidly at him.

"How did you…I just…you just…"

"I'm a shape-shifter, remember? I turned into a bird and flew back up."

Ishtar stared at him before regaining his senses. He glared at the smiling boy and shoved him to the side where he fell back onto one of the couches. "Stay here!" he shouted before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Malik's smile faded as the stared at the shut door. He wanted to make him mad, not make him leave. And now he was gone.

He sighed and stretched out on the couch. This was no fun. He liked Ishtar. He was fun to mess with. And he wasn't too bad to look at either.

He sighed and rolled over onto his stomach. Okay, he'd admit it; he had developed a bit of a crush. There wasn't anything wrong with that. And it's not like he thought of him as his one true love that he was meant to be with for the rest of his life.

In all honestly, he thought of him as more of… a target.

* * *

Once again, he was left alone. Yugi absentmindedly swung his legs over the side of the side of the bed. Yami was always leaving for one reason or another. He couldn't blame him. He was Pharaoh after all, and it was a big job ruling a country.

Besides, it gave him plenty of free time to think. And considering what too place that morning, this was a good thing.

It had been a very eventful…week, actually. He hadn't had so much excitement in his entire life, but a lot of it he could have lived without.

But what bugged him the most was that prophecy that they had mentioned at the meeting.

_'Was that it?'_

He summoned up the piece of paper he was using a few nights ago and read what he had written down.

_'Was that the first part to_ -my-_ prophecy?'

* * *

_

YYY: DunDunDun… I betcha nobody saw that coming.

Yugi: Okay, so we finally come back and leave the readers with a cliffhanger. Is that really fair?

Jou: Probably not. But this is it. Anymore and they'll have to wait three more months.

YYY: Yeah, again I'm really sorry about that. You guys are so great and I'm a bad bad person. So I'm going to go see a shrink and see you next chapter.

(No promises of when it'll be out though. I might jinx it.)


	15. Chapter Fifteen

FANART TIME! Not much though, but I guess you could call it an almost spoiler. It's a pic of Priest Mokuba in action (kinda) Check it out (remove the spaces): www . deviantart . com / deviation / 18324385 /

* * *

Yami Yugi: Hey everyone! Guess what? I'm back with another chapter! 

Yugi: (sarcastically) Woohoo.

Jou: (sarcastically) Yippie.

YYY: Oh come on guys! You know you have fun with me…

Yugi and Jou: …

YYY: You know you love me…

Yugi and Jou: …

YYY: You know I'm the one that signs your paychecks…

Yugi and Jou: You are the greatest author ever and we love working with you!

YYY: (sigh) Let's just get on with it. Sorry, no reviewer response this time, but I'll make up for it next time. Promise! But still, thanks for all the wonderful reviews and for putting up with my slow updates for so long. You guys rock!

* * *

Disclaimer and Warning: I refuse to type this one more time! You know by now what I do and don't own. Get used to it!

* * *

Chapter 15 

He moved silently down the dark stone hallway, wrapping his dark cloak closer around him. He mumbled something to himself in an annoyed tone and quickened his pace. The place just -had- to be underground. They could have made it up above the ground like normal people but no. It had to be dark and fifty degrees bellow zero at all times.

He growled and made it to the end of the hall. He pushed open the door and entered a dimly lit room.

"You're late."

"Screw you."

The other man chuckled. "Now, now, let's not be rude. Come. Sit. It's time we got started."

He sneered at him and sat himself on the opposite side of the fire in the center of the room.

"So then my Bandit friend, what information do you have for us," the other asked folding his hands and letting his chin rest upon them.

The bandit made a face at his leader and spoke. "Well, the full Seven have been assembled."

"Oh?"

"Yes. The final two area pair of thieves. I think their names were Bakura and Ishtar. They are also the masters of the Wind and Fire Elementals."

The leader smirked. "Now this is getting interesting. So everyone is assembled. Then it should be staring soon."

"Yeah. How long it takes, however, depends on how attached they are and how strong their hearts are. But they will all turn in the end. In fact," he cracked a smile, "Ishtar, the master of the Fire Elemental, has already begun to crack. But the others have had their slaves much longer, but show no signs of change."

"Yes, I suppose their hearts are stronger. We will merely have to wait for them."

"Yes, we could do that," came a woman's voice. The two men looked at their comrade who, up until now, had remained silent. "But that could take a long time. Do you really feel like waiting?"

The leader looked interested. "And what, exactly, do you have in mind?"

She smirked. "Just a little push to help them along."

* * *

The four slaves lounged in the shade of a large tree in the courtyard the next day. Bakura and Ishtar were in Priest training with Yami and Seto, leaving the four to entertain themselves. 

And it wasn't working.

"Hey Ryou."

"Hmm?"

"Hey Ryou."

"Yeah?"

"Hey Ryou."

"Yes?"

"Hey Ryou."

"What?"

"Hey Ryou."

"…"

"Hey Ryou."

"Damnit! What is it?"

"… hi."

"HI?"

Yugi and Malik sat back, leaning against the palace walls and watched as Jounouchi got his face pounded into the ground by the white haired boy.

Malik yawned and stretched. "Well, that was almost mildly amusing for a second."

"Yeah, kinda," he responded not really that interested. It was a very boring morning where everything seemed kind of hazy and unimportant. Almost dream like.

"Owowow! That's my leg!" came Jounouchi's shouts from the background.

"I hope they get out of training soon," Yugi stated, ignoring the commotion in the background. "It's boring without them."

Malik humphed. "They can stay in training for as long as they like."

The other quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Cause my master's a weird jerk." At this Yugi somehow appeared right in front of his face in a millisecond. "What?"

"What's the problem?" he inquired. "You two have a fight or something?"

Malik shook his head. "No. Well, yes, but that isn't the problem."

"So what is?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I just get the feeling that he hates me."

"What?" came the chorus of three voices, Jounouchi and Ryou suddenly part of the discussion. "Why would you think that?"

He shrugged again. "It's kind of hard to explain, but I just think that he does."

"I seriously doubt it." Ryou said. "I mean, he might act really mean to you at first, but that doesn't mean he -hates- you."

Jounouchi nodded in agreement. "That's right. Like, Seto was a total jerk to me when I first met him. Well, he's still a jerk, but that's not the point because even though he is sometimes mean, it doesn't mean he hates me."

Yugi looked at him. "Seto? Since when are you calling him Seto?"

The blond blushed. "Uhh… Since yesterday… he said that's what he wanted me to call him so…"

"Yes!" Yugi exclaimed happily before glomping his friend.

"Whoa, wait. What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on," he whispered in his ear. "You know you like him." The older boy blushed even harder.

"Uh, guys. Back to the subject at hand please," Ryou said.

"Right," Yugi said, returning to the previous conversation. "So come on. Spill it. What gave you the idea that he hates you?"

He told them what happened the previous day and by the time he had finished, they were all shaking their heads in disappointment.

"Malik…"

"How could you."

He jumped. "What? It's my fault? What I do?"

"You scared the hell out of him, that's what."

He looked at them. "Uh, yeah. That was the point. It was supposed to be funny."

"Malik!" Ryou whined.

"What?"

He sighed. "You know what? Follow me. We're going for a little walk."

"O-kay," he gave him a weird look which grew when he saw him climbing the tree.

"Well, come on." He followed him up the tree. Yugi and Jounouchi stayed on the ground, both wondering what the white haired boy was up to.

Once the two were a very high distance up, Ryou turned to Malik. "Okay, now watch this." He walked backwards, putting a few feet of distance between the two on the branch.

But as he walked, his leg got caught on a stray branch, causing him to trip. He quickly put his arms out for balance, but couldn't get his footing strait fast enough, and fell off.

"Ryou!" Malik ran forward in a panic. The only reason they were up there was because of him. If Ryou got hurt because of it, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

He reached the spot where he fell of and looked down, only to see Ryou smiling up at him from the branch bellow.

"Gotcha." He grinned.

Malik blinked at him before glaring down at him. "You little, you scared me!" he jumped down to him and grabbed him by the front of the shirt.

"Whoa, slow down," Ryou put his hands up in defense. "Now, how do you feel right now?"

"Like I'm going to kill you," he growled.

"Angry?"

"Hell yes!"

"Well that's how Ishtar felt after that little stunt you pulled yesterday."

He blinked for a few moments, realization dawning on him. "Oh…" he let go of his shirt. "I really screwed up, huh?"

Ryou smiled and shook his head. "Nah, you just made a little mistake. Nothing you can't fix. Now come on, let's get down from here."

Malik nodded and started climbing down the tree.

* * *

BANG. BANG. BANG. 

Yami sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Hitting you're head against the wall isn't going to help us any," he muttered.

"Don't care. Bang. I figure if… Bang. I hit my head… Bang. Hard enough… Bang. I'll pass out… Bang. Thus ending my misery. Bang."

The Pharaoh took his finger and thumb and applied pressure to his temples. It had been a LONG day and Seto trying to get himself to pass out wasn't helping any. Then again, he wasn't that far behind him. Ishtar and Bakura were… He couldn't think of a word to describe them.

Childish, impossible, and a downright pain in the ass were words that came to mind though.

For what must have been days (although really only a few hours) they had been _trying_ to train them to become proper priests. Key word there being "trying."

Problems started right away when Ishtar refused to actually put the Millennium Eye into his eye socket. After a large amount of arguing, they had to give in, but for the Eye to work properly, they had to go through a ceremony so it could work outside of a body which took up a large amount of time and energy. By the time they were prepared to start training, the two thieves complained about being too tired.

Even when they did start it was just a big mess. Bakura was pretty decent when it came to hand to hand combat, and was very skilled with a bow and arrow, but when it came to magic, which was what really counted, he was next to hopeless. Ishtar was even worse as he couldn't even handle hand to had combat, much less magic.

And so five hours later there they were. Bakura and Ishtar staring in shock, Yami just about ready to give up, and Seto succeeding in tunneling through the wall with his head.

"A simple energy spell," Yami muttered. "You invoke the power of the Item you hold, and pray to the Gods to enhance your spiritual energy. The most basic of magic. I mastered it when I was five. So tell me…

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU MANAGE TO GET US LOCKED IN A ROOM THAT DIDN'T EVEN EXIST FIVE MINUTES AGO!"

Bakura blinked and looked around the room. "Just gifted I guess."

"Argh! Seto, move over." He came up next to the High Priest and proceeded to bang his head against the wall as well.

"Hey, do you guys hear something?" came a muffled voice from above them. The four stopped and looked up at the ceiling.

"You mean like some kind of banging?" came another voice. "Yeah. What do you think it is?"

Ishtar jumped up. "Hey!" he shouted at the ceiling. "We're down here! Let us out!"

"Huh? Who was that?"

"It… kind of sounded like Ishtar… Yugi, how about you do some digging?"

There was a shifting sound and s oft rumbling from above. A second later the four jumped back as the ceiling caved in, allowing a steam of light to pass into the chamber. He approached under the opening to see the faces of four curious slaves looking down on them.

"Hey, need some help?"

* * *

"Eight little sleepers snug in their beds 

Who knows what dreams now run through their heads

An amazing adventure in far away lands

Love and romance in the palms of their hands

But sweet little dreamers the end is now here

A nasty little nightmare draws ever near

So sleep well children in a warm embrace

The romance is soon over leaving death in its place."

A dark violet light glowed in the darkness of the night around the bodies of four masters. It lingered for only a moment before fading away. And within the darkness outside the palace walls a woman laughed into the night, a shorter figure beside her also with a fading purple glow about her.

"Good job my pet," the woman said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulders. "Now, Pharaoh, it is time for you and all you're little friends to put on a show which the world will never forget!"

* * *

YYY: Hehehe. Okay, so not much development (or answered questions) in this chapter. If anything, I probably gave you guys even more to wonder about. But yeah, You'll probably get a few answers in the next chapter (maybe) but it all depends on what I come up with. See you then! (whenever that might be.) 


	16. Chapter 16

Author's note: Although not really a chapter, it cannot be categorized as an authors note and threrfore cannot be deleated. After this I'm afraid I may lose some support though...

Chapter 0: Something's not right

* * *

"Hey Yugi?" Jounouchi asked, letting his hands glide gently over the pond's surface.

"Yeah?" He answered, laying back against a tree.

"Do you ever notice that our lives don't make much sense sometimes. Sort of jumbled?"

"Sometimes, yeah."

"Well, do you ever wish we could get things in order sometimes?"

Yugi sat up and grinned at his friend.

"Oh you don't have to worry about that!"

Jounouchi removed his hands from the water and looked at his friend curiously, waiting for him to continue.

"Well," he leaned back to his former position, "Our lives are being rewritten as we speak."

"What?" he looked at him like he was crazy, wishing he knew what he was talking about.

"It's true. You see, our entire lives were being written by this girl called an author and she didn't like the way things were progressing."

"So what? That's it? We're finished?"

"Oh quite the contrary. She is going to re write our story, the first chapter of which is now posted. All the info is in her profile page right now if you're interested."

"But our story isn't through then?"

"Nope, It's just adjusting slighly, but don't worry, this version will still be here. You know, for prostetiy."

"Oh, okay."

They returned to their previos positins and sat in silence for a few moments.

"Hey Yugi?"

"Yeah?"

"What's a profile page."

* * *

A/n: Well you heard the boy! Start clicking! 


End file.
